What Happened
by dragoness-kass
Summary: Yugi and his friends are investigating the Orichalcos emergence, but after they get two unlikely and unwilling allies, will everyone make it to the end? WARNING: language and dark themes; self-harm, suicide, rape etc. Orichalcos-era fic. OC.
1. Chapter One

This story is set around the Orichalcos episodes; Yugi and his friends have been drawn into the mess against their will [ish]. They've recieved a message claiming to know of a location pertaining to the sect and are travelling there... in Kaiba's private limo. The Yami's don't have their own bodies yet. Yami is Yugi's Yami; Bakura is Ryou's Yami; Marik is Malik's Yami [as of the moment, neither Marik, Malik, Ishizu or Odion are in the story]. The companions know Yami is a Pharaoh, but that's it!

Also: any usage of 'aibou' or 'hikari' is ONLY in a platonic sense. At the moment there are no relationships... this might change, but it's unlikely. WARNING: this is rated for language, as well as much heavier things later in the series. Things that may be alluded to or used: rape, abuse, torture, self-harm, drugs, booze, violence and very bad language. Please don't read if you will be affected! I don't want to harm or hurt anyone's feelings.

Disclaimer: If I owned YuGiOh, would I really be writing fanfic of it?

Reviews are much appreciated, even if they're only a single letter long!

* * *

'You're _sure_ this is the right place?' Yugi asked nervously.

'Quite sure,' Kaiba snapped, checking the GPS. 'We're about ten minutes away.'

'Quite sure, we're about ten minutes away,' Joey mimicked. 'That's what you said ten minutes ago.'

'Shut up,' Kaiba growled, crossing his arms.

'Come on, guys, can't you get along for a little while?' Tea asked.

'He's being an arrogant jerk.'

'At least I'm not an immature dog.'

As Joey and Kaiba resumed their fighting, Yugi sighed. A cross-country trip in a private limousine had sounded good to him—free drink, free snacks, and plenty of room for all. If they had to travel to some godforsaken town to solve the Orichalcos problem, they might as well do it in comfort and style, right?

Wrong.

Kaiba and Joey had been bickering for most of the trip. Even Tea's nagging had been unable to stop it, and Yugi was beginning to wonder if they wouldn't have been better off walking.

_Six people in one limousine? What were we, crazy?_ He thought.

He, Joey, Tristan and Tea had been dragged into the Orichalcos mess unwillingly. Whilst they'd been content to let somebody else handle the mess, Yami was pleased for the diversion from "normal" life, and had wasted no time in getting them caught up with the soul-stealing sect. Ryou's dark side had also become interested, albeit for entirely different reasons—luckily, they'd managed to re-banish the Ring spirit before any real damage had been done.

'Shut up, mutt!'

'Bite me, Kaiba!'

Yugi groaned. _Ten minutes is ten minutes too long._

They'd been sent a message claiming to have discovered a signal referring to the Orichalcos, and Yami had decided that they would travel there. Unfortunately, none of them had the dough for plane tickets, and so they'd been forced to ask Kaiba for help.

At first he wanted nothing to do with them. However, after nearly losing his own soul to an Orichalcos goon, he agreed to help them. "Limo travel is cheaper than air travel" he'd said. Grateful for a free ride, they'd accepted his offer with no thought to the practicality side.

Which now found Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Ryou and Seto Kaiba in one limousine. Duke and Serenity had wisely chosen to remain in Domino with Mokuba and Yugi's grandfather.

_Wish we could've stayed,_ Yugi thought.

_You know we can't._ Yami's voice echoed in his head. _We have no choice in the matter. We have to fix this!_

_You mean _you_ have to fix this,_ he said sourly. _None of us would have to be here if we didn't share a body._

_Come on. You have to admit you're enjoying the break from school._

Yugi sighed, smiling a little. Yami had a point. As much as he'd been enjoying life without people constantly trying to destroy him and his friends, the adrenalin rush of life-or-death duels was a welcome reminder of the more exciting parts of his life.

The limo ground to a halt, jolting him out of his thoughts.

'What are you doing?' Kaiba demanded. He reached forwards and tapped on the glass divider. 'I said, imbecile, what are you—'

Suddenly the limo shuddered, sending everyone sprawling to the ground. A vague roaring came from outside. Shouts and yells filled the air.

'What's going on?' Tea cried.

'I don't know.' He knocked the switch to lower the divider. 'Driver, what—_what_?'

The driver's seat lay empty, and the door was open. A low rumble could be heard outside.

'Where'd he go?' Ryou asked.

'Damned if I know,' Tristan said. 'But we need to get out of here.'

'Then drive!' Tea screamed.

'I don't drive stick shift!' he yelled. 'Kaiba, it's your limo, drive the thing!'

'Like hell,' Kaiba said.

Another jolt made the limo shudder, and the roar of bikes was now clearly audible over the yells.

'If you don't drive, we're going to die!' Tea yelled. 'Drive!'

Kaiba dove into the seat. With a horrible grinding noise, the limo started. Then almost immediately stalled.

'What the hell are you doing?' Joey yelled.

'I don't drive!' Kaiba snarled back. 'That's what chauffers are for!'

Tea screamed as the roof of the limo was peeled off like the lid of a sardine can, leaving the companions exposed. Motorbikes tore around the stationary vehicle. Each of the riders wore plain black jackets and identical black helmets. The green circle of Orichalcos was emblazoned on their jackets.

'Orichalcos!' Yugi called.

One of the bikers drew to a stop in front their bonnet and drew a gun. He aimed it squarely at the older Kaiba. But before the man could fire the weapon, something slammed into him from the side, knocking him under the tyres of another biker and causing a chain-reaction pile-up.

'_Dark Tornado!_' a voice howled, and a mini-twister formed in the centre of the pile-up, drawing bikes and riders alike into a steadily growing vortex.

_What's going on, Yugi?_ Yami asked.

_I don't know!_ Yugi replied. _Isn't Dark Tornado a card?_

_It is. But—_

'_Dimension Portal!_' another voice called. A glowing circle appeared behind the twister. It began sucking the tornado and its contents into its black mass. When the entire mass of swirling wind had vanished into its maw the portal exploded, covering the area in a choking dust storm.

Coughing, Yugi looked up. Two figures were visible in the gloom.

'Guys, two made it!' he yelled, pointing at the figures.

'Drive already, Kaiba!' Joey yelled.

The engine coughed to life, but again stalled almost immediately.

'_It's alright,_' a voice said. '_We're not with the Orichalcos._'

Tea blinked. 'Wait, what? They speak now?'

'_Yeah, we speak,_' the second voice growled.

_That's the same voice that used Dimension Portal,_ Yami said.

_You recognise it?_

_I listened. We can trust these people. I'm fairly sure they wouldn't save us just to kill us._

Yugi shook his head. 'Yami says he thinks these people are the ones who used the Tornado and the Portal.'

'_Correct,_' the first voice said. '_Now come with us._'

'Why the hell would we come with you?' Kaiba asked,

The dust settled, revealing two bikers. One rode a red and black bike, while the other rode a blue and black one. The rider of the red bike sat a little shorter than the blue biker. Both wore unpadded black jackets and plain black helmets.

'_Either you come with us, or we leave you to the next batch of Orichalcos bikers who arrive,_' the blue biker said.

Ryou pulled at his collar. 'I say we go with these two.'

'What if it's a trap?'

'Tristan, why would they save us if not to help us?' Tea demanded.

He shrugged.

'We'll play along for now,' Kaiba muttered. 'If worst comes to worst, there's only two of them.'

'I hate to agree with Kaiba, but he's right,' Joey said. 'Two strangers are better than the Orichalcos bikers.'

'_Then hurry._' The red biker turned and roared off, leaving a dust trail. Kaiba managed to start the limo. Slowly, he followed the red bike, leaving the blue bike to follow them.

'Who do you think they are?' Tea asked.

Yugi shrugged. 'Who knows, who cares? They're not Orichalcos.'

Juddering and shaking, they followed the biker to a ramshackle town. Derelict warehouses filled the space between chain stores and petrol stations. They were led to the other side of the town.

The red biker switched on their left indicator and turned into the garage of a dirty one-storey house. Gears clashing, Kaiba managed to steer the limo in behind the bike, muttering oaths under his breath. The blue bike easily pulled in behind them.

The second biker snapped the stand out and got off the bike, removing his helmet. He was a young boy, about their own age, with brown hair and blue-grey eyes.

'Alright, who are you?' Kaiba growled.

'Kaiba! They helped us.'

'They could just have brought us here to kill us, Tea. Ever thought of that?'

'Shut it, Kaiba.'

'Big words, Moto.'

'Hey! Hey!' the boy called. He unzipped his jacket, revealing a black shirt. 'Cut it out the lot of you. We're not gonna harm you. I'm Valon.'

'Funny, you look a lot like the other bikers that tried to take us out.'

'I say we still should take 'em out,' the first biker growled. They hadn't taken off their helmet yet.

'Why the hell would we do that?'

The second biker shot what they guessed was a glare at Valon. 'It's _them_.'

Valon's eyes widened.

'Who is _them_?' Joey asked. 'And who are _you_, man?'

Valon shook his head. 'She's no man.'

'She?'

The second biker unzipped their jacket, and the four boys instantly turned red. The girl—there was no doubting that now—wore a tight-fitting black tank top. About five-eight, maybe five-nine, she was only a little taller than Yugi, and just as lean… but her chest rivalled Mai's.

Mai noticed, and huffed. 'Boys.'

The girl made no response. In one fluid motion, she ripped her helmet off.

She had a lean face and long black hair, streaked with red, tied in a ponytail. Her eyes were the same violet as Yugi's. A total of seven silver rings adorned her ears, and her mouth was set in a straight line. Two small blue tears were tattooed next to her right eye.

Around her neck was a tight black choker, similar in style to Yugi's; while his was dark blue and buckled, hers was jet-black and had metal studs. A silver hook on each side of the choker linked to a chain. On the end of the chain was a golden sword-shaped necklace.

'I'm Raven,' she said. '_They_ are none of your business. And _you_ will stop staring at my chest or I'll put your eyes out.'

'I wasn't—'

'Oh, _please_.'

Leaving the companions open-mouthed, she stalked into the house.

Yugi turned to Valon.

'Look, I don't know about anyone else here, but I have no idea what's going on. Between bikers trying to kill us, those cards coming to life, and now this Raven girl—why don't we go inside and you can explain things from the start?'

Valon sighed. 'That's probably a good idea.'

He led them into the house and steered them to a messy living room. Two grubby couches sat in front of a TV unit.

'Take a seat,' he said. 'I'll be right back.'

The six companions watched him walk into the next room.

'Who the hell are they?' Ryou whispered.

Kaiba shrugged. 'I don't know.'

'They brought those cards to life!' Tea squeaked. 'That's not good, is it?'

'I don't know,' Yugi said. 'I mean, it's not like we haven't seen it before.'

'This is outside of the shadow realm, though.'

He sighed at Tristan's comment. 'True.'

'Why did we have to be rescued by idiots who live in a dump?'

'At least we were rescued, Kaiba.'

Seto rolled his eyes. He considered telling Gardner where she could stick it, but decided against it. 'We don't know who they are, or even why they rescued us in the first place. I completely reserve the right to call them idiots.'

Valon re-entered the room. 'Then maybe she was right. We shouldn't have rescued you.'

He turned to face him. 'I would have been fine with that.'

'I'm sure you would have, cause you'd have a hole in your face and wouldn't be breathing enough to care,' Valon snarled. 'Do you want an explanation or not?'

Grudgingly, Kaiba settled back into the couch. 'This had better be _good_.'

'Alright.' He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. 'Like you've been told, my name's Valon; her name is Raven. We've been here for about six months. The Orichalcos—'

'Hold it,' Kaiba said. 'Last names? Ages?'

'You don't need any of those.'

'I beg to differ.'

'It's not enough that we saved your asses?'

'Kaiba, enough,' Yugi warned. 'Valon, you were saying?'

'The Orichalcos sect has been in this area for about four months, using a temporary base,' Valon continued. 'So far, Raven and me haven't had any luck in narrowing down their base of operations. We know there's a single leader; his name is Dartz. He's not in this area.'

'Forget about Dartz,' Kaiba ordered. 'What do you know about the group in this area?'

'Not much. We know they've been harvesting souls through duels, using the Orichalcos cards; why and how we don't know.'

_Ask him how they managed to use those cards in real life,_ Yami told Yugi.

'Yami wants to know how you used those cards to save us,' Yugi said.

Valon glanced. 'Who's Yami? On a related note, your names would be good to know.'

Yugi sighed. 'I'm Yugi. The girl over there is Tea; the blond-haired guy is Joey; the brown-haired guy is Tristan and the white-haired boy is Ryou. The guy with the briefcase is Seto Kaiba. Yami is… uh…'

'A five-thousand year old spirit that lives in the pyramid puzzle around his neck,' Kaiba interrupted. 'It shares his body and looks just like him, oddly enough.'

'We understand if it sounds a bit odd,' Tea added.

To their surprise, Valon shrugged. 'Nothing really sounds that odd anymore. To answer Yami's question, Raven's the one you'll need to talk to. She's the one that works with the magic… if you want to call it that.'

'Maybe I will.' Kaiba rose to his feet. 'As soon as you tell me more about _you_.'

'You don't need to know anything, mate,' Valon said. 'It's enough that we saved your lives. If you want to talk to Raven, she'll be down in her room. I'd suggest you be a bit politer to her than you were to me.'

'Suggestion ignored,' Kaiba said. 'Where's her room?'

He stood. 'I'll take you. Her room's out back. But you'll want to let me talk to her first… she can be aggressive sometimes.'

Seto grumbled, but nodded his assent.

The rest of the house was as grubby as the living room had been; almost every wall had dents or holes in it, and half the doors were missing. Those that weren't were falling off their hinges. Oily rags littered the floors and bike parts filled the shelves next to chipped plates and bowls.

Valon led them to a doorway that was covered with a sheet, and rapped on the wall next to it. 'Raven? It's Valon, I'm coming in. Better be decent.'

'Fuck off,' her voice snarled.

'Don't even try it,' he replied, and swung the sheet to the side. It fell back in place after him.

The six friends moved closer to try and hear what was going on, but soon realised it wasn't necessary.

'They want to talk to you.'

'Why the fuck would I want to talk to them? We _saved_ their asses and all they're doing is asking fucking questions.'

'Raven, they didn't—oh, for Christ's sake, don't tell me you started again.'

'Started what?' Tea whispered.

Yugi shrugged. 'How would I know?'

'What the fuck else do you want me to do?'

'Maybe _talk_? You got a mouth you know!'

'Like any of those fuckwits would care to listen,' she spat. 'They don't know what it's like, they'll _never_ know what it's like. They've never had anything like that happen to them and they never will. How the fuck could they hope to understand? Nobody fucking can.'

'That doesn't mean you have to do this to yourself.'

'What would you rather I do then?'

A sigh came from the room. 'I don't know, girl. What am I gonna do with you?'

'Do I honestly care?' Raven asked.

'How about we get that cleaned up, for a start. Kaiba wants to talk to you.'

'Tell him he can go stick his head up his ass for all I care.'

'Look, let's get you cleaned up. You don't have to talk to him, just listen to what he wants to say. Who knows, maybe he wants to apologise.'

'Yeah, I'm sure.'

'Alright, alright, I get the picture. Come on, they're waiting out there. Let's fix this up and go get you a coffee. Would you like that?'

Another sigh came from the room. 'Alright then.'

Two sets of footsteps moved deeper into the room, and the voices dropped.

Kaiba shook his head. 'Talk about a bitch.'

'That's not nice, Kaiba,' Ryou said, putting his hands on his hips; a move designed not to intimidate but to increase his own resolve. 'We don't know what might have happened to her.'

Kaiba turned his back, laughing shortly. 'Ask her when she comes out, then.'

'Maybe I will,' he pouted.

The five remaining companion watched Kaiba stalk down the hallway uncertainly.

'He's right, you know. She does seem like a nasty piece of work,' Tea said.

'No, Ryou's right,' Joey said. 'We don't know what might have happened to her.'

'We don't even know her full name.' Yugi agreed.

'Raven,' Tea snorted, rolling the name around her mouth. 'Bet you anything that's not her real name.'

'It doesn't matter for now,' Ryou said. 'Until we have proof otherwise, I say we should treat them both as friendlies.'

Yugi sighed. 'Well, there's no point in treating them bad. They did save us after all.'

'Wish they hadn't,' Joey muttered to Tristan as the five began walking back to the living room. 'Then Kaiba wouldn't still be around.'

* * *

End of chapter one... chapter two to come up soon!


	2. Chapter Two

What do you know... the second chapter's up! Hope you like...

Disclaimer: if I didn't own YGO before, what makes you think I do now?

* * *

Half an hour later, Valon walked back into the living room, followed by Raven. Her duel disk was still on her arm but she'd shed her jacket.

'So, the fabled Raven deems us worthy of her presence,' Seto growled. 'What's the occasion?'

'Shut it before I smash your face,' Raven snapped. She roughly pulled a chair back from the table. 'You got no right to be here, and the only reason you're staying for now is the Orichalcos problem. You're lucky I don't throw your ass out of here.'

Valon sighed. 'What happened to "I'll try to be nice"?'

'He's being a cunt.'

'Wash your mouth out,' Tea said.

'Go fuck yourself,' Raven replied.

'And this is _such_ a good way to get to know people,' Ryou sighed.

Raven glared at him. 'Never said we had any need for white-haired shemales either. You're welcome to join him if you want.'

'_Raven_,' Valon said, exasperated, 'Do you _have_ to be so aggressive?'

She turned to him. 'You want to ask the guys at the centre that?'

Valon turned back to the kettle. 'One sugar or two?'

'That's better.' She settled into the chair. 'So, Valon's told me your names. Who owns the convertible limo?'

'That would be _me_,' Kaiba said. 'It wasn't a convertible.'

'So I noticed,' she smirked. 'You couldn't drive it, either.'

'I have chauffers to do that for me.'

'Not anymore you don't.'

Growling, he folded his arms. 'What did you mean by "the centre"?'

'None of your business.'

'I think it is.'

'I don't,' she said.

'Enough,' Yugi hastily interjected. 'We wanted to ask you about what you used to bring those cards to life.'

'Just why should I tell you?'

'Because they're as much a part of this mess as we are,' Valon said. 'Tell them.' His voice was firm; not in warning. It was an order.

She sighed, suddenly looking much older. 'Alright; if you trust them.'

'You don't?'

'No. But I trust you. I figure your judgement will be good enough. If not…' she let her voice trail off menacingly.

'My judgement is fine,' he said. 'Explain. I can't.'

Shaking her head, she leant forwards to rest her head in her hands. 'It's some form of magic; I don't know where it comes from or why I can even use it. All I know is it allows me to bring cards to life.'

'But Valon used it too,' Yugi said. 'Yami said he—'

'Heard his voice; yes, I know,' she said, sounding irritated. 'It allows me to bring cards to life. It _also_ allows those that I trust the most to use that power too. I trust Valon with my life; he can use the magic.'

'You must know more,' Kaiba said. 'You're lying.'

Her eyes narrowed, becoming violet slits. 'Even if I was, it wouldn't matter. I don't even trust you with my coffee, let alone my life. You couldn't use the power even if I wanted you to.'

'You didn't say you weren't lying.'

'I never said I wasn't,' she said. 'But that's all the explanations you're getting. You can like it, you can hate it; you're not getting anything more.'

Yami took over from Yugi. 'I apologise for Kaiba's insolence, Raven,' he began. 'I am Yami; I don't know if Valon explained about—'

'I don't give a shit about his insolence, _Yam_.'

'My name is not—'

'It is now,' she said. 'And yeah, Valon explained about you and Yugi there.'

Yami crossly folded his arms. 'Don't call me Yam.'

'I'll call you what I want.'

'Raven—'

'Screw it, Valon,' she said. 'I can say what I want.'

He sighed, 'Raven, ne sheh tutorna kisonoo attawah.'

'Nem tan,' she replied. She noticed Yami staring, and frowned. 'What're you looking at, Yam?'

'You speak Egyptian.'

'Wow, really?' Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

'What'd they say?' Joey asked.

Yami smirked. 'Valon said that Raven is a real bitch sometimes, and she replied it was his problem.'

'Not bad,' Raven said. 'Translate this then: _Yami shen ur marswah tanchet nis shah—_'

'I am not a dog-fucking bastard!' He snarled, rising to his feet. Raven eagerly jumped up, fists at the ready.

Valon quickly stepped between them. 'Enough,' he said firmly. 'Raven, don't call them names.'

'I wasn't calling him anything, I was merely stating the obvious.'

'As true as that may or may not be,' Valon continued determinedly, 'We will be working with them until either this mess is over or you lose your soul to the Orichalcos. So for the sanity of all concerned: _play nice_.'

'This is nice.'

'By society's standards,' Valon said.

'But mine are—'

'Not acceptable.'

She pouted. 'Fuck that.'

Sighing, Valon dragged her into the living room, and the two began chattering in Egyptian.

'Wonder how they know Egyptian?' Tea asked.

'I don't know, and I don't care,' Yami growled. 'She's a _marswah kisonoo_.'

'A what?'

'You don't want to know,' he said, before vanishing into the puzzle, leaving a slightly smiling Yugi in his place.

'What did he call her?' Tea repeated. 'You're Egyptian; you understand, right?'

Yugi blushed red. 'Yeah… uh… he called her an f-ing female dog.'

'Why don't you just say he called her a fucking bitch?' Kaiba asked.

'Because some of us have a sense of decency and politeness,' Yugi snapped back. He calmed himself before continuing, 'Anyway, it's not like any of us need to swear… she uses enough for all of us.'

'Speaking of which, you alright, Ryou?' Tristan asked.

'Fine,' the white-haired boy replied. He smiled a little. 'It's not like I _haven't_ been called a shemale before.'

'Who?' Tea instantly jumped in on the conversation, eager for gossip.

Ryou shrugged. 'Bakura.'

'Not really surprising,' Kaiba chipped in, promptly earning himself a glare from Tea. He glared back. 'What? He _looks_ like a girl.'

'Glad to see someone agrees with me,' Raven said, stalking back into the kitchen.

Yugi groaned. 'Oh Ra, what do you want now?' Since getting to know Yami, he'd adopted most of him mannerisms; invoking the gods of Ancient Egypt was one of his favourites.

She glared at him. 'I'd love to sic my Curse of Dragon on you, but Valon says I can't.'

'You have a Curse of Dragon?' Yugi asked, astonished.

'Yeah.' She seemed nonplussed. 'You do know there are hundreds of them in the world, right?'

'Of course.' But this was the first time he'd run into someone else who had one.

'Look, enough, already,' Valon sighed. He ran his hand through his hair. 'No more fighting. No more arguing. No more _anything_. You came here for the Orichalcos, right?'

Seto nodded.

'Then start searching for that signal. _You_—' he took Raven by the arm— 'Can go let off some steam in a _productive_ manner.'

'You're no fun.' Scowling, she yanked her arm from his grip and marched from the room.

'The rest of you can do whatever takes your fancy so long as you remain inside the house. We can't afford for those Orichalcos jerks to find where we are. There's a dodgy workout area behind the garage if you want to use it; we don't have internet access unless you want to hack the local wireless network. No phones, very few books, and one or two board games. There's also a deck of regular playing cards if you want them. I'll be with Raven.' He hurried out of the kitchen, calling over his shoulder, 'There's also foodstuffs around here somewhere, but I wouldn't eat anything without checking the best-before.'

Kaiba quickly pulled his laptop out of his briefcase and opened the lid. Interested, Ryou sat down next to him and watched quietly over his shoulder. Tristan and Joey immediately began rummaging through the ramshackle cupboards; unfortunately for them, at the end of their searching, they'd only managed to uncover a half-empty packet of stale cornflakes and a number of unidentifiable mould-encrusted objects. Tea, after shaking her head, retrieved the playing cards and began playing solitaire. Yugi lay down on the cleaner of the couches and tried to nap.

Inside the confines of the Puzzle, Yami grumbled to himself. _Marswah kisonoo.

* * *

_

And it's done! What happened to Raven? Why is she so mean? And what will happen next?

I have no idea... R+R pls!


	3. Chapter Three

And it's chapter three! Any ideas on who Raven is/what happened to her? Fear not... all shall be revealed soon.

Disclaimer: I'm still writing fanfics, ergo I still do not own YGO. I only own Raven and [bits of] the plot.

* * *

'I have the connection working,' Kaiba announced.

'Finally,' Joey muttered under his breath. 'Only took four friggin—'

Tea elbowed him in the side and he quickly shut up. After four hours, he'd learned to shut up when told to; proving, as Raven had suggested upon her return, that even the stupidest of dogs could learn new tricks.

Seto had promptly told Raven that she was now considered his best friend.

Raven had promptly replied that the only "friend" he'd ever have was his right hand, before proceeding to insult all the companions until Valon dragged her from the room amidst swear words in two languages.

Ignoring both Tea and Joey, Kaiba turned to Yugi. 'Tell the Pharaoh to get out here now. He'll want to see this.'

Yami instantly appeared. 'What do you want?'

'The signal the message talked about. I have a track on it.'

'You _do_?'

'Yeah, I do.' Kaiba smugly folded his arms. 'What do you say?'

Before Yami could reply, a voice snapped, 'Tell us where the signal's coming from or you'll be eating with your asshole.'

Six pairs of eyes turned to the hallway.

'Yeah, I'm back. Yeah, I'm sorry. Not really, but Valon won't shut up until I say so.' Raven strode forwards. 'So tell me where the signal's coming from. Now.'

Valon jogged in behind her. 'Raven, what did we just—'

'I said sorry.'

'Didn't sound it.'

'Well, I'm not,' she snapped.

'Being honest for once, are you?'

She turned to face Yami, only to find Yugi in his place, arms folded and a frown on his face. 'What do you know, the shrimp's out again.'

Instantly the Pharaoh resumed control. 'I—'

'Forget it, Yam,' she ordered.

'My name is _not_ Yam,' Yami snarled, re-folding his arms.

She ignored him. 'Seto, where's that signal coming from?'

Yami was about to snap back at her when he noticed Valon shaking his head frantically. Grudgingly, he fell silent. He _hated_ the nickname Raven had come up with; no, scratch that. He hated _her_.

Seto, now smirking, turned the screen of his portable laptop to face Raven. 'As I was about to tell _Yam_ over there, the signal was hard to isolate again but…'

'Thanks,' a voice muttered in Yami's ear, distracting him from Kaiba's monologue.

'I'd say "you're welcome", but I wouldn't mean it,' he replied softly.

Valon shrugged. 'Fair enough.'

Stepping back from the companions, Yami turned to face the teen. 'Care to explain what you're thanking me for?'

He regarded the ancient spirit for a few moments before whispering, 'Thanks for not making an issue of her bitchiness.'

Yami started, and Valon noticed. 'What, you think I won't bitch her out behind her back?'

'Well, yeah,' Yami said. 'You two seem—'

'Bitching people out is second nature to me.' His joking tone quickly disappeared. 'Look, I'll make it quick. Raven is the queen of pushing buttons. If anything can make you mad, she'll find out what it is and then use it as often as possible. She _lives_ to piss people off. Doesn't matter who they are, what they've done—more often than not, nothing—she'll piss them off for her own gain.'

_What could she gain out of it, though?_ Yugi's question echoed in Yami's mind.

'Yugi asks what she gains out of it,' Yami said.

The brown-haired teen shrugged again. 'Like I know. I just thought it'd be best to warn you before things got much worse.'

Yami looked back over to his companions, who were now crowded around Kaiba and his laptop. Raven was now arguing with Kaiba over some matter.

_He looks more angry than he was with Pegasus,_ Yugi said.

_I'm not surprised, hikari,_ Yami replied.

_What's she saying?_

Yami listened for a moment, then shook his head.

_What? Yami, tell me!_

_I wouldn't dream of defiling your ears in that manner. Suffice to say, she knows more Egyptian curses than I do. Ancient Egyptian, too._

_Oh._ Yugi retreated back into his soul room.

'…for _fuck's sake,_ Raven, just _shut up_!' Kaiba shouted.

Raven was smirking happily, but before she could answer, Valon clapped a hand on her shoulder. 'Come on, Kaiba, tell us where we're kicking ass already,' he demanded.

She shot him a look of reproach, which he ignored.

'A warehouse on the other side of this rubbish town, twenty minutes out of the city,' Kaiba replied.

'I suggest tomorrow,' Tristan piped up.

'Sounds good,' Joey agreed. His stomach rumbled.

'Let me guess. You're hungry.' Tea rolled her eyes.

'There's a few takeaway joints in town,' Valon offered. 'Pizza, pasta, greasy crap—'

'_Pizza!_' Joey was instantly on his feet.

'Just how do you plan to pay for it?' Raven asked, thin-lipped.

He sunk back down again. 'Didn't think of that.'

'Don't you guys have some money?' Ryou asked.

'Yeah, of course we do,' Raven replied.

'Seriously?'

'No, you idiot, of course not.' She pulled a thin leather wallet out of her pocket. 'Though this ought to work. Thanks, Seto.'

'You—_hey!_' Kaiba shot to his feet, grabbing at his pockets. 'That's mine!'

'Mine now,' she corrected, pulling out a hundred-dollar bill. '_Jesus_, how much cash do you need?'

He snatched his wallet back. 'How'd you get that?'

'Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies.'

Glaring, Kaiba settled back into his seat. The hundred dollars was no big loss; not for a multi-millionaire. But the sheer _audacity_ of her daring to steal his wallet…

'Quit your death-staring, Kaiba,' Valon said. 'It doesn't work on her.'

'I wasn't death-staring.'

Ignoring the remark, Valon turned to the group. 'Give me the orders and I'll get the pizzas.'

'Valon—'

'_Raven_,' he said firmly, 'Will stay here.'

She crossed her arms, satisfaction at stealing Kaiba's wallet evaporating. 'Why?'

'Cause the way you ride, you'll end up eating tarmac again, and I'm not about to come fetch your ass from the ER today.'

'Bastard.'

'Just looking out for you, bitch,' he replied. Neither seemed ruffled by the names. 'Orders?'

'Meatlovers,' Joey said, apparently not bothered by the language either.

'Seconded!'

'You're really going to eat a whole pizza on your own, Tristan?' Tea asked.

'I haven't had anything since breakfast.'

She shrugged. 'Hawaiian, please.'

'I'll share,' Ryou offered.

'Two Meatlovers, one Hawaiian,' Valon repeated. He turned to Seto and Yami. 'You two?'

_Not hungry,_ Yugi said, even as their shared stomach rumbled.

'Vegetarian,' Seto said. He wasn't a vegetarian; this was merely the least disgusting option available. He _hated_ cheap food.

'Something with as little cheese as possible,' Yami said.

_But I like cheese,_ Yugi said.

_I thought you weren't hungry._

Having no reply, Yugi lapsed back into silence.

'So two meats, one Hawaiian, one veggie, something without cheese. Got it.' Valon turned to Raven. 'All or none?'

'All,' she said.

'Good,' he replied. 'I'll grab some garlic bread and drinks.'

'Make mine a whiskey.'

'No booze, Raven.'

'I'm not riding tonight.'

'Doesn't matter.' He picked up his helmet. 'I'll be back in about an hour.'

'An _hour_?' Raven whined. 'You're leaving me here for an _hour_ with these fucking—'

'It'll do you good,' he said firmly. 'You don't like it; tough. You're gonna have to be on good terms with them before all this is over. By the time I get back you'd better have gotten to know each other.'

And with that, he grabbed his keys and left.

'_Fucking bastard!_' she yelled. When it became apparent Valon wasn't going to reply, she snorted and turned to face the companions. 'Look, I'm not interested in knowing any of you. So I'm going to the gym area out back.'

She spun around and marched out. 'You tell him I didn't talk to you, you're dead.'

'Ain't she a ball of sunshine,' Joey remarked.

Ryou sunk onto the couch. 'I guess we'll have to wait until she trusts us a bit more.'

'I'm not waiting,' Kaiba declared. He tapped a few commands into his laptop and a video screen popped up.

'_Hi, Seto!_' Mokuba's voice echoed happily from the speakers. '_What's up, big brother?_'

'Hey Mokuba,' Seto replied. 'I need you to do a background check for me.'

'_Who on?_'

'One Raven. Approximately seventeen years old, female. Probable Egyptian national. Unsure of last name.'

'_On it. Anything else?_'

'Check out Valon, too,' Tea suggested.

'Yeah, another background,' Kaiba said. 'One Valon; last name unknown. About seventeen, male, probable Egyptian national.'

'_I'm on it, Seto,_' Mokuba chirped. '_Stay safe._'

'I will. Seto out.' He switched off the video feed. 'We should know by tomorrow.'

Suddenly, a cacophonic blast of noise blared from the back of the house. The more musical of the gang could make out clashing guitar chords; most just heard screams and growls over noise.

'_What in Bast's name is that?_' Yami yelled, covering his ears.

'Music,' Joey replied. He seemed completely unfazed by the noise. 'From the sounds of it, metal or heavy rock.'

'Whatever it is, she can turn it down,' Kaiba spat, angrily rising to his feet. He strode towards the gym area. Uncertainly, the five remaining friends trailed him.

_Aibou, do you really think Kaiba will be able to get her to shut the noise off?_ Yami asked.

_Not a chance in hell,_ Yugi replied glumly. _More's the pity. She'll strangle him before he gets the chance._

Yami sighed, chuckling softly to himself. _That wouldn't be so bad._

_

* * *

_Reads are nice, reviews are nicer!

Next chapter will be up soon [I hope...]

^_^"


	4. Chapter Four

Alright, it's chapter four! Things will start to get hot soon, I promise; very, very soon.

Disclaimer: didn't own it for the last three chapters, don't for this one.

* * *

'For the _last fucking time_, I will _not_ turn down my music!'

'You _will_ turn down the fucking music or _I will make you_!'

'Raven, Kaiba, can't we just—'

'_Shut up, Gardner!_'

Yugi groaned to himself. As predicted, Kaiba had been unable to get Raven to shut off her music; in fact, she'd done the complete opposite. The music—a mix CD of Egypt Central, Disturbed, The Birthday Massacre and god knows what else—now shook every last window in the house.

Raven sat astride a run-down bench-press, duel disk still on arm. She was frowning. 'Look, I don't _care_ if your eardrums burst and bleed. This is _my_ fucking place and _my_ fucking music, so if it's too loud—_GO FUCK YOURSELF_!'

To everyone's surprise, Seto lunged at her. 'I'm going to—_hrk!_'

'You're gonna go back to the kitchen, sit on your ass and shut up,' Raven snarled. Her hand tightened around Kaiba's throat. She rose to her feet, dragging Kaiba with her. The companions looked on, astonished, as she easily raised him off the ground. 'And don't you _ever_ rush me again.'

Without a single trace of effort, she flicked her arm, sending Kaiba flying across the room and into the wall on the opposite side. 'Get out.'

'How did you—'

'I said _get out, _dog boy!'

'But—'

'_OUT_!' she roared, snatching a disk from the end of the bench-press bar and flinging it at Joey.

Joey managed to duck, luckily as it turned out; the disk punched a hole in the wall and sent chunks of plasterboard and wood scattering around the room.

'That… that's made of metal,' Ryou stammered, staring nervously at the hole.

'What did you think bench-press weights were made of, paper?' Raven demanded, now thoroughly pissed off.

'But you threw it like it was a Frisbee!'

'_I SAID FUCKING GET OUT!_' She yelled, picking up another disk.

Ryou instantly fled the room, followed by Yugi, Tea, Tristan, Joey and Kaiba, scrambling over each other in their haste to avoid the next weight.

Another song began blaring. Raven's voice joined the din, an oddly melodic strand in the tangled sonic mess. '_I know you'll be there, to see the tables turning… wake up tomorrow, and watch the bridges burning…_'

'She can sing,' Joey panted.

'If you call screaming along with pots and pans singing,' Kaiba grunted. He pushed himself up off the floor.

'Aww, was Kaiba scared of the little girl?'

'You ran away too.' Kaiba quickly brushed himself down, mentally chastising himself. A CEO did not run away from young girls…even if the young girl in question had just thrown him across the room, then flung a twenty-pound metal disc at Joey's head like it was a Frisbee.

'_I can feel it in my mind… I don't care, I don't care if you realise, what you see, what you see in my eyes…_'

'A crazy bitch, that's what I see,' Tea grumbled. 'I'm going outside.'

'But Valon said—'

'Oh, fuck what he said, Moto,' Kaiba interrupted. 'If you want to stay here and be deafened by that crap, then that's fine by me.' He turned his back and strode from the room.

At that moment, the song reached its peak, and the singer let out a soul-tearing scream. Raven joined in.

'Alright, I'm coming,' Yugi winced.

'_I'm over me being under you… I'm breaking free and I'm breaking through…_'

He blocked his ears until they'd walked far enough into the back yard that the music was reduced to a faint tremor in the early evening breeze. Raven's singing wasn't that bad; it was her choice of music that killed his ears.

'Jesus,' Ryou groaned, lying down on the grassiest area he could find. 'My ears are still ringing.'

Yugi carefully picked up a rusted metal—_thing_—before sitting down beside him. 'Did you see the way she threw that weight?'

'Forget the weight, did you see the way she threw _Kaiba_?' Joey carelessly flung himself down beside his two friends. 'That was _awesome_!'

'It was _not a throw_,' Kaiba growled. He didn't sit down; he leant against a half-dead tree, arms folded defiantly yet coolly. A small, rusting hunk of metal came up to his waist, and he quickly propped his laptop on it. The lid snapped open with a flick of his fingers.

'No, you just fell horizontally across the room in midair,' Tristan said, lazing idly beside Joey. Tea had joined the four on the ground as well. 'After colliding with Raven's hand.'

'It was _not_—' A sudden beeping from the laptop halted him midsentence. He clicked on the alert. 'Oh, Mokie. What's up?'

'_Mokie_?' Joey sniggered.

Kaiba didn't blush.

'_Hey, big bro_,' Mokuba said. '_We've made a little headway, but we need pictures to narrow things down. You think you can get some?_'

'Shouldn't be a problem,' Seto replied. 'I'll get them to you as soon as possible.'

'_Thanks. Mokuba out._'

A small smile cracked Seto's face at his younger brother's imitation of himself.

'Somewhere, I betcha a puppy died,' Joey whispered to Tristan.

'I wish it had been a puppy named Joseph,' Kaiba growled, his normal demeanour returning.

'I'm no mutt!' Joey made a half-hearted attempt to get to his feet, but couldn't be bothered and slumped back down. 'Man, I need some grub.'

Kaiba shook his head. _Stupid mutt._ He rose quietly to his feet, leaving the laptop open. From one of his trench-coat pockets he withdrew his phone.

Yugi noticed. 'What are you doing, Kaiba?'

'Getting a photo for Mokuba.'

'If she catches you, she'll kill you,' Tea said.

'Your concern is noted. I'll be quite fine.'

'It wasn't concern,' Tea said, not really caring if Kaiba heard her or not. He was already halfway back to the house.

'You really think she'd kill him?' Yugi asked.

'She already threw him across the room, Yug,' Joey said. 'I think she'd kill him.'

'I wish she would,' Tristan said.

'You don't mean that,' Ryou put in.

'Oh, I do.'

Over at the house, Seto was pleasantly surprised to discover that Raven had turned down the music, if only a little. It was easy enough to slip into the house unnoticed; it was something else entirely to sneak down to the gym room and take a picture of her without her realising.

Taking a deep breath, he padded softly down the corridor to the room. The music drowned out any noise he made. As he drew near, he could hear Raven's voice join the music.

To his own surprise, he found his heart was pounding. He wasn't afraid; certainly not. Seto Kaiba was _never_ afraid. He quickly opened the camera function on his phone, making sure the flash option was off. Silenly, he poked his head around the crack in the door.

Raven was still on the bench-press. He counted the weights on the end of the bar, swearing to himself when he finished. One hundred and eighty pounds of weight. _No wonder she could throw me so easily_. He was astonished at her strength; her lean arms looked barely muscled enough to pick up a chair, let alone all those weights.

Shaking his head, he raised his phone. He waited until she finished her set and sat up before snapping a quick photo. It was a good one, at least to him; it captured perfectly her hair, her face, even her teardrop tattoos. It also captured her necklace. He reminded himself to ask Mokuba to check out that as well… there was something about that necklace that interested him. Yes; this photo would do.

He backed away down the corridor. The floor panel he stepped on let out a small creak, and he jumped. Just as he was calming himself, his phone—set to silent—went off, vibrating frantically in his pocket. He swore mentally. As he pulled it out, his eyes widened.

The call ID read 'Mokie'.

Hurrying back down the corridor to be out of Raven's earshot, he picked up the call. 'Mokie?'

'_Bad news, Seto,_' his little brother said.

'Bad news how?'

'_On the backgrounds. Raven's big trouble._'

'I knew that already,' he grumbled. 'She's a pain in the—'

'_No, bigger trouble,_' Mokuba interrupted. '_She's an illegal, big bro. Valon too._'

His eyes widened, and a small grin appeared on his face. 'An illegal, you say?'

'_Yeah, an illegal. All of the backgrounds we've pulled up so far say that any Raven or Valon over here is here illegally. But the story gets worse. She's also got a record—and if the background we have is the right one, you guys could be in big danger._'

'Danger?' He felt his smile slipping a little.

'_Raven was serving a twenty-three-year sentence when she escaped from an Egyptian juvenile detention centre,_' Mokuba said. '_We don't know exactly what for yet, but she's definitely here illegally, and definitely a big-time criminal. They don't give twenty-three year sentences to car thieves._'

He shrugged it off. 'We'll be fine. I'm just sending the photos of Raven to you; Valon's will be there in an hour or less. Can you check out her necklace, too?'

'_A necklace?_'

'It's a sword, golden, and looks to be of a similar style to Moto's, Ishtar's and Bakura's,' he said. 'It… it just _interests_ me.'

'_Alright, Seto,_' Mokuba said. '_One more thing, though. Remember Ravana Moto?_'

'Yugi's twin sister.' His heart began to grow heavy, and he shook off the feeling. 'Of course. She died two years ago.'

He remembered her so well; Yugi's twin in every sense of the word, she was as kind and as gentle—though slightly less naïve—as her brother. She preferred to keep her hair a utilitarian brown, rather than Yugi's tri-coloured monstrosity. Even their duelling skills were identical. He had to suppress a laugh at this; she was the only person he'd ever seen defeat Yugi in a fair duel.

And the only one he'd ever asked for a date.

But on the day they'd meant to meet up, she'd never shown, and it was only later—while he was angrily thinking up all the possible things he could do to her to make her feel as bad as he did—that he'd found out she'd apparently been involved in a fatal accident on the way to their rendezvous.

He hadn't had the courage to attend the funeral. Yugi hadn't told him where or when it was, and he'd been glad for that… he hadn't wanted to make up an excuse; it seemed to him that it would be dishonouring her memory. But he knew he couldn't attend. He would let nobody see him cry. As a matter of fact, he still didn't know where her grave was. He would have left flowers. Yugi never told him, though.

'What about her?' he asked, clearing his throat.

'_She might not have died_,' Mokuba said.

He felt his heart stop and his jaw drop. 'What did you say?'

'_She might not have died,_' he repeated. '_That is, she might still be alive._'

'You're joking.'

'_No. According to this, Ravana _also_ had a record. It ends when we were told she died; that's true. But the twenty-three-year sentence Raven's record only begins after Ravana's ends._'

His head was spinning. This was all wrong. 'You're telling me—'

'_Your Raven could well be Ravana Moto,_' Mokuba finished. '_But we're not sure yet. We'll need photos to confirm or dispute anything. I'll let you know what we find. For now, just see if you can find out anything more on Raven—and if you can, see if you can corner Yugi about that accident._'

He couldn't. She couldn't be. It was impossible. He shook his head to clear it; even if this _was_ Raven, even if Ravana _was_ still alive, was he ready to see her again?

It was only now he realised how much Ravana still affected him.

'Alright,' he replied mechanically. 'Talk to you later.'

'_Talk to you later too, big bro,_' Mokuba said. He hung up.

Seto closed his phone. In the space of ten seconds, his life had been shaken up horribly, and he wasn't sure whether the news Ravana might be alive was good or bad.

Then another thought hit him. If Raven was Ravana, and Raven was an illegal alien with a twenty-three-year juvie sentence, was Ravana really who he thought she was?

Or was Yugi hiding more than just her grave?

* * *

Sorry for the cliffhanger... hope you liked. If you're interested in Ravana, there's a story featuring her [AU, however] named "Dancing On The Beach".

Reviews are loved!


	5. Chapter Five

Hey, here's chapter five! Quick note: for those who speak Egyptian, I'm sorry my "Egyptian" is utter rubbish [SETO-KAIBA-LIFE =) ]; I am working on finding a reputable [i.e. correct] translation online. Hopefully it will be correct and up very shortly. In the meantime, I apologise, but here: have a new chapter.

Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Dammit.

* * *

Seto walked back to his companions, thinking hard. Mokuba's call had shaken him; he would admit that, though only to himself. Ravana…

He shook his head, telling himself to stop thinking of her. Even if she wasn't dead in a physical sense, she was dead in an emotional sense. Raven wasn't Ravana. She _couldn't_ be Ravana. He refused to believe that Ravana—the gentle, sweet, caring, mischievous girl that he'd wanted to know so well—could have become the crass, uncaring, unemotional trash that had thrown him across the room.

_You were kind once, too,_ a voice inside his head told him; he ignored it. Niceness was _not_ a part of him. At least, not he part he showed to anyone. Not anymore. He'd only know Ravana for a year and a few months, and she'd been gone more than three.

'Whaddya know, Kaiba's still alive,' Joey said. 'More's the pity.'

'Shut it, Wheeler,' he snapped. He strode back to his laptop and began working furiously.

'What are you doing, Kaiba?' Ryou asked.

'Work. Some of us have jobs, you know.'

Ryou reddened and returned to his companion's conversation.

Seto didn't even feel guilty for lying to him.

He didn't have his business work up on the screen. Instead, he had a picture of Ravana. It was a candid shot—she didn't know he'd taken it—and just the single image was enough to remind him of the feelings he'd buried so long ago.

She was atop a duelling platform, in the school uniform of Domino High. Unlike the other girls at the school she chose to wear long blue pants instead of the short pink skirt; when questioned, she'd shrugged and said it was easier to run in. Her dark blue jacket was tied around her waist. Underneath, instead of the school-issue shirt, she wore a white tank top.

Her hair, a dark brown with natural highlights, reached just below her shoulders; it was billowing in the wind like a cape. Two violet eyes stared across the platform at the long-forgotten duelling opponent. She was smiling, and just that smile was enough to make Seto's stomach churn. She looked… _free_.

'What are you all doing out here?' Valon's voice interrupted his thoughts. 'I thought I told you all to stay in the house.' He marched towards them.

'Your friend in there was intolerable,' Seto snapped, disgruntled at being jerked so roughly out of his memories. He quickly closed the photo.

'You try staying in there with that music the way it is,' Ryou quickly chimed in.

'Did she even _try_ to talk to you?'

'No.'

Valon sighed. 'Why am I not surprised… ah, well, I'll talk to her and see if I can't get her to behave next time. Come back to the house. Pizza's here.'

Joey and Tristan instantly leapt to their feet and began sprinting towards the house; groaning, Valon followed. Yugi, Tea and Ryou were more sedate in their actions. They calmly stood and walked to the house.

Seto remained behind, returning his laptop to his briefcase. Certain nobody was looking he sighed. _What wouldn't I give for one more day with her._

As sweet as she'd been, she was logical and reliant, too. If something would be beneficial in the long run, she was more than happy to suffer short-term; if she had a choice between hurting her friends to help them or letting them help themselves, she'd choose to hurt them and explain later. Her duelling strategies were top-notch. And—Seto had been particularly happy about this—she was another dragon-favouring duellist.

But she was dead. So he shook his head, ignored the flutter in his chest, and strode purposefully back to the house.

In the kitchen, Joey and Tristan were messily tearing through two pizzas. Tea and Ryou were politely eating their shared Hawaiian; Yugi had given control of his body back to Yami, and Yami was grudgingly picking at his cheese-less supreme. Seto's vegetarian pizza sat unopened on the table besides two oversized bottles of cola and four rolls of garlic bread.

Neither Raven nor Valon were in the kitchen, but he noticed that there was another pizza near the sink, and a foil box.

He grudgingly sat down and began slowly eating his pizza. For cheap, greasy, takeaway food, he had to admit it wasn't that bad.

'Right, where's my food?' Raven announced, striding into the kitchen. Joey visibly flinched, but didn't stop eating. Apparently she didn't expect an answer and picked up the foil box, grabbing a fork as she did so.

And she sat next to Seto.

'Don't you have some other place to sit?' he grumbled.

'I live here, Seto,' she said. Another thing that annoyed him; her refusal to use his last name. Only Mokuba was allowed to call him Seto. He'd told her that during their last big fight.

But this time he didn't make an issue out of it. Not only was he hungry—something he hadn't noticed before—but he knew her little secret, and was determined to use it wisely. 'Do you now?'

'Yeah, you fucking idiot,' she snarled, shovelling a forkful of carbonara into her mouth.

'Funny, a little bird told me you're not supposed to be in the country,' he whispered.

At this, she straightened up, eyes open. 'How—'

'Never you mind,' he said. He was going to _enjoy_ this.

She put the box down. 'What do you want?'

'I'll tell you after dinner,' he said, raising the slice of pizza to his mouth. 'For now, though, I suggest you behave. I'm happy to keep this quiet, but the others… the others may not be. And I'm sure the department of immigration will be quite grateful for your capture.'

Her eyes narrowed, but she spat, 'Fine.' She silently returned to her meal.

He smiled to himself. Mokuba's information had been correct; she was here illegally.

And she was going to suffer for what she'd done earlier.

*

After the companions had finished their meal, they moved to the living room. Raven chose to remain in the kitchen, however, claiming that she was still eating and didn't want to mess up the living room—despite its already-filthy state. Seto also remained behind for "a drink of water in peace".

For a few minutes they sat at the table in an awkward silence, until Raven spoke. 'Out with it, you bastard. What do you want?'

'Information and some courtesy,' he replied.

'What kind of information?'

'Information on _you_,' he said. 'I already know both you and your little friend are illegal aliens. I'm fairly sure you both have juvie records, too. Unless you want to be returned there, you'll tell me everything you know.'

Raven winced. 'What do you want to know?'

He leant towards her. 'I want to know what you did to get put in juvie.'

'Grand theft auto,' she said matter-of-factly. Before Seto could reply, she continued with, 'Assault and battery, attempted robbery, break and enter—'

'Hold it.' He put up his hand. 'How many times have you been in juvie?'

She thought for a few seconds, before replying, 'More than ten.' The look on her face told him that these were things she wasn't happy talking about.

'Total sentence length?' As bad as her confessions were, he was _enjoying_ making her squirm.

'Concurrently or cumulative?'

'Big words.'

'You learn them.'

'Total sentence length for all offences, and time served.'

She stared into the distance for a while.

'Raven, answer me or—'

'About eight years served,' she said quietly. 'Sentenced to upwards of twenty.'

'So how'd you get off so easily?'

'I was only eight when I first got arrested. I'd serve a few months, get out, get arrested again, serve another few months… time off for good behaviour at first. Escaped twice.'

Explained a bit. 'What about Valon?'

'Ask him yourself,' she snarled.

'Tell me about Valon, or I'll turn you in to the police.'

'He's my friend. Turn me if you want.'

_New tactic._ 'Tell me about Valon or I'll turn _him_ into the police.'

She closed her eyes, sighing. 'You win. Valon was first arrested at nine. Crimes include grand theft auto, drug dealing and manufacturing, assault—'

He cut her off with a wave of his hand. 'How'd you two get over here?'

'Escaped from the centre together. Smuggled ourselves onto a boat going to Mexico, and from there snuck over the border. Hitch-hiked our way to here.'

'So how did you come by the bikes, the house, all this stuff?'

At this, she narrowed her eyes and folded her arms. 'That, I will _not_ tell you. Turn us in, do what you will. You won't get that from me.'

He could let it slide. 'Very well. That will be enough for now. However, your attitude needs changing if you want me to keep this quiet.'

'And why should you?'

'Because _I_ am willing to keep the cops in the dark. The others probably won't be.'

She groaned. 'What the fuck do I have to do?'

'Be nicer. Be politer. Call me Kaiba instead of Seto. I don't care for the swearing; use whatever you want, but don't call me anything. You'll be helpful. And you will _stop_ playing that goddamned music so loudly. I don't care if you play it, but play it _quietly_.'

She pushed her chair back from the table and stood. 'Fine then, _Kaiba_. It's a deal. You shut up about me and Valon, I'll be less of a bitch.' Grudgingly she shook his hand, then hurriedly left the kitchen.

Seto remained behind. He snapped off an email to Mokuba, telling him that both Raven and Valon definitely had records; he included the charges that Raven had told him about. Remembering that Mokuba would be worried, he added the instruction not to inform any of the authorities.

As it sent, he remembered that he hadn't asked Raven about her necklace. _No matter._ He'd ask her next time they had a little "chat".

After closing his laptop, he joined the rest of the companions in the living room. They were discussing plans for tomorrow. Reluctantly, he joined the conversation; they would be needing his limo, after all. It was decided that they'd make for the warehouse by travelling outside of the town. A limousine with its roof torn off stood out, and Valon insisted that was something they didn't need.

He smirked to himself. He knew exactly why the boy was so hesitant to garner attention.

Raven refused point-blank to drive the limo, and Valon unhappily said he would; he could drive manual, after all, and nobody else could yet. He offered to teach the companions how to. Joey happily accepted, and to his own surprise, Seto agreed as well.

Their plans drawn, they broke off into their own activities. Raven and Valon retreated down the hallway; Seto guessed that she was telling him what had happened. Joey, Tristan, Tea, Ryou and Yugi happily relaxed in front of the television. He himself pulled out his laptop again and started on a report for an investor.

An hour or two later, at about ten, Valon came back into the living room. 'Alright, everyone's off to bed now; we need rest for tomorrow. Four of you get the living room—one per couch, and two share the spare mattress—and the remaining two can use the double in my room.'

Tea instantly claimed one of the couches, followed by Yugi. Tristan and Ryou got the double, leaving—

'No _way_ am I sharing a bed with moneybags!' Joey whined.

'You think I'm happy to share with you, mutt?' Seto snarled.

Joey folded his arms. 'I'm not sleeping with him.'

'Seconded.' Kaiba growled. 'I want a couch.'

Valon groaned. 'Do we have _any_ volunteers to share the double?'

Nobody put up their hands, and Valon sighed. 'Alright, then. Joey can have the double and Kaiba can sleep on the floor.'

'Refused,' Seto said. 'I sleep on a bed.'

'This isn't a hotel, mate,' Valon snapped. 'You can share with Joey, or you can sleep on the floor. Take your pick.'

'Why don't Raven and I share?' Tea said. 'We're both girls.'

'Raven doesn't share a room with anyone but me,' he explained. 'So, what'll it be?'

Seto cursed under his breath. 'I'll share.'

'Wasn't so hard, was it?' Valon turned. 'I'll grab the mattress.'

Unsurprisingly, the mattress Tristan and Ryou were sharing was grubby and lumpy, and everyone's sheets were riddled with holes. But nobody complained; they'd had it worse. Valon switched off the lights amidst a chorus of half-hearted grumblings from the living room and muffled swear words from his own room, where Kaiba and Joey lay on the very edges of the bed, as far apart as possible.

Despite the discomfort, all were soon asleep.

*

'_YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!_'

Shocked from his peaceful sleep, Seto leapt out of the double bed, dragging Joey—still asleep in the tangle sheets—off the bed with a thud.

'What the hell was that for?' Joey's muffled voice asked.

'Someone screamed, mutt.'

Joey was instantly on his feet. 'I didn't hear—'

'_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!_'

Seto flung the door to the room open, running into an equally-shocked Yami. 'You heard that too, Kaiba?'

'Yeah,' he said. 'Who was it?'

Yami shook his head. 'None of us.'

'That leaves—'

Another scream echoed from Raven's room, followed by Valon's voice shouting, '_It's alright, it was just a dream, you're alright—_'

The companionshurried down the hallway, barging into Raven's room. Valon had his arms around a still-shrieking Raven, who was curled into a tight ball and sobbing.

'What happened, Valon?' Ryou asked.

'Nightmare,' he replied. 'It's alright, Raven, it's alright—'

'I get nightmares too, but I don't wake up screaming and crying,' Yugi said.

'She has reasons to,' he said.

'Like?'

Valon shot Kaiba a dirty look. 'Not right now. Sorry for her waking you up. Probably should have told you this happens most nights.'

Raven began rocking back and forth, mumbling in Egyptian to herself. Valon tightened his grip around her, and began smoothing her hair. 'It's alright. You're safe. It was just a dream.'

Ryou knelt beside them and made to put his hand on Raven's shoulder, but Valon blocked him.

'She won't like that,' he said. 'Words are fine, but she'll hurt you if you touch her.'

'Then why are _you_ holding her?' Kaiba demanded. He was furious at being woken at this time of night, but an odd feeling of concern was growing in his chest. It was disconcerting to see Raven in this way; only a few hours before she'd been arguing with them.

'Because she knows I mean her no harm,' Valon said. 'Look, go back to bed. She'll be fine.'

Too tired to be worried, Joey and Tristan nodded before returning to their respective beds. Tea also left, after a soft "hope she's alright". Yugi and Ryou remained with Valon for about half an hour before returning to bed.

Seto stood at the doorway for a full hour, watching silently as Valon calmed Raven in soft Egyptian, singing her some form of lullaby as she dropped off to sleep. He soon returned to the mattress on the floor next to hers.

Seto watched for another fifteen minutes - after snapping a covert pic of Valon for Mokuba - before returning to bed. It wasn't out of concern, he told himself; it was merely out of curiosity. That and he was still wide awake. He wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. Besides, he needed to keep an eye on them. They were dangerous.

At least, that was what he told himself.

* * *

Wonder how soon Mokuba's results will come in? Reckon they'll be alright tomorrow?

And why do Raven's nightmares scare her so badly?

Hope you liked... reveiws are loved! ^_^


	6. Chapter Six

...and here's chapter six! New developments ahoy; my apologies if any characters are, well, out of character, but so far I think they're all fairly close to how they are.

* * *

'Pass the juice.'

'Get it yourself, shrimp.'

Seto glared at Raven, and she sighed before passing the orange juice to Yugi. 'It's alright, Val. Here you go… _shrimp_.'

He sighed. Politeness in her book obviously didn't extend to not calling people names—or apologising for waking them all up at three in the morning with her godforsaken screaming. She hadn't even apologised for waking them. She'd only glared at the mention of her nightmare and stalked off to breakfast.

Seto hadn't slept much after Raven's nightmare episode; he'd begun comparing her to Ravana and his mind had taken things from there. Every last memory he had of her had run through his mind. The only thing he was grateful for was the fact that Raven couldn't be Ravana—she'd told him she'd first been in juvie when she was eight, and had served eight years with only breaks of a few months in between sentences. He'd known Raven for one year and three months when she was fifteen turning sixteen, he being sixteen turning seventeen—he was nineteen now.

Unless Ravana herself had a juvie record that nobody knew about, Raven was Raven, and Ravana—

_Is still in the graveyard,_ he told himself.

'Kaiba? Yo, Kaiba? You alright?'

He snapped out of his thoughts to find Joey eagerly waving a piece of cold pizza in front of him. He roughly shoved it away. 'I'm _fine_, mutt.'

'I'm not a mutt!' He calmed himself before saying, 'Would it be cool with you if I used your laptop to speak to Serenity before we go after these goons?'

'You expect me to just let you use _my_ laptop to call your sister?'

He blinked. 'Well, yeah. If anything happens to me today I want her to know that I care for her and that things will be alright. You got a little brother. You'd do the same, right?'

Grumbling, Seto opened the laptop. 'You owe me, mutt.'

'I should probably talk to Grandpa too,' Yugi said.

'They're probably not even with Mokuba.'

'No, they will be,' Tea said. 'It's Friday. We agreed to call in on Fridays, remember?'

'If you say so.' He started up the webcam, but before he could open a window to Mokuba, another window opened. Serenity, Mokuba and Grandpa sat smiling in one of Kaiba's offices. To his surprise, Shadi was also there, standing in the background.

'That's my office!' Seto growled.

'_It's alright, big bro, I cleaned it up first,_' Mokuba said. '_How you going?_'

'Alright,' he said. _Considering I'm stuck with the nerd herd and two criminals, I'm doing just fine._

'_Cool_.' Evidently Mokuba hadn't noticed his sarcasm. '_How are you all doing?_'

'Serenity!' Joey plunked himself down beside Seto, ignoring the CEO's protests. 'How you doing, sis?'

'_Fine, Joey!_' she replied.

'Your eyes still good?'

'_Yup!_' She smiled happily. '_How about you guys?_'

Joey glanced over at Raven and Valon, who were eyeing the laptop with a mixture of suspicion and interest. 'We're, uh, doing good… we've made two friends!'

'Friends?' Raven scoffed. 'You have an interesting definition of friendship, mutt.'

'_Who are they?_' Grandpa, ever cautious, spoke up. '_Yugi, are they trustworthy?_'

'So far, they've been just fine,' Yugi assured him.

'_Can we see them?_'

Yugi beckoned Raven and Valon over. 'Okay, Grandpa, this is Valon—' Valon gave the old man a small wave— 'And this is Raven.'

Raven frowned and stuck her tongue out.

Seto glared at her again, and she rolled her eyes before retracting her tongue and snarling, 'Pleasure to meet you.'

Grandpa frowned in return. '_Yugi, I don't like her._'

'Hah, he likes me but not you!'

'Oh, can it, fucktard.' Raven said.

'_Neither do I,_' Serenity said.

'Maybe not. I can't say I like you much either. But it's thanks to me that your little friends are still alive right now, so I'd be nice if I were you,' Raven said.

'Look, forget about you for now,' Seto interrupted, earning himself a glare from Raven. 'We have a track on the signal, and a location to travel to. That's where we're going today.'

'_You'll be alright, won't you, Seto?_' Mokuba asked.

'Of course I will,' he assured him.

'_Joey, please be safe,_' Serenity begged.

'I will, sis.'

Grandpa sighed. '_There's not much point in telling you and Yami to stay safe, Yugi, so I'll just tell you to look out for each other, alright?_'

'We will, Grandpa,' Yugi said. His eyes creased. 'We're missing you.'

'_I'm missing you too. Hopefully this will be over soon and you can all come home._'

'We'll do our best to be home as soon as we can.'

'_Good._' The old man sighed before smiling and waving goodbye. '_I'd better get back to the Game Shop now, so I'll say bye for now._'

'Alright, Grandpa. Bye!' Yugi waved at the retreating figure of his grandfather before returning to his breakfast.

'_I'd better get going too,_' Serenity said. '_I'm helping out!_'

'Neat!' Joey said, waving. 'See you, sis. Stay safe!'

'_I will, Joey._' She waved before following Grandpa.

Seto shooed them away from the laptop. 'Alright, you've made your calls.' He clipped on a headset, and began typing. _Alright, it's safe for you to talk freely, I have my headset on. Found out anything yet, Mokie?_ The text-to-speech synthesiser, courtesy of KaibaCorp, gave his words a robotic tone.

'_Not yet, big bro,_' he replied. '_But Shadi wants to talk to you._'

_Alright._

What could the keeper of the Millenium Items want?

'_Kaiba._' The Egyptian nodded politely.

_Shadi. What do you want?_

'_That necklace that Raven wears. It's an Item,_' he said, a note of urgency in his voice.

_What?_ Raven's necklace another Millennium Item? _I thought there were only seven._

'_No. There were originally thirteen created, but six were destroyed._'

_So how'd she end up with one?_

'_I know that I personally destroyed five of the Items. The sixth one, the one Raven wears now, was to be destroyed by an associate of mine. I suppose that he failed._'

_Figures._ Kaiba sighed heavily. This complicated matters immensely. There was already Yugi with his Puzzle, Ryou with his Ring, and Malik with his Rod—only one out of the three spirits not evil—another spirit-in-a-necklace would make things much more difficult than they already were. Especially if said spirit was another evil one.

'_The Item she wears is called the Millennium Sword,_' Shadi explained.

_So what's it do? Any more evil spirits we have to worry about?_

'_No, no spirits reside inside the Sword,_' Shadi said.

He sighed. At least _something_ was going his way today.

'_Rather than a spirit, the Sword grants the owner access to the Shadow Realm. Unfortunately for you, however, the Sword also grants the owner immense physical strength and the ability to control the strength of others._'

_You mean she can make us stronger or weaker?_

'_Only one of you at a time. But the boost to her own strength is always in effect._'

That explained how she could throw him so easily—and how she could bench-press upwards of a hundred and eighty pounds. _Anything else we need to know?_

'_Yes. The Sword also grants the wearer the equivalent of thirteen souls. Normally this would not be an issue, but given the current Orichalcos problem, she has the ability to survive losing thirteen duels. She can also return souls to their original bodies by sacrificing one of her own._'

_Great._ They were never going to be rid of her. At least they could use her to bring back any of _them_ that lost a duel.

'_However, there is a drawback,_' Shadi said. '_If she loses all thirteen souls _and _her own, she will not simply fall unconscious until they are returned. She will die._'

That wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Shadi evidently guessed what he was thinking, because he added, '_If she dies due to loss of the souls, the Sword will turn her into a physical representation of who she truly is. From what your brother has told me of her, that will most likely be a monster of some kind. And it _will_ attack you._'

Great. Not only was she going to be very hard to get rid of, but if they used up all her extra souls, she'd turn into a monster and kill them all anyway. _Any upsides to this?_

'_Yes,_' Shadi said. '_Because she can speak Egyptian, she will be able to use all the spells contained in the Sword. I do believe you have already been shown some magic in the form of bringing cards to life._'

_Yes. Anything else?_

'_Should she require a weapon, the Sword will provide her with one. Only she will be able to use it, however._'

_That's not really an upside, you know._

The Egyptian shrugged, turning away. '_Depends whose side she takes._'

Seto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had a headache already. Another Millennium Item._ And in the possession of a psychotic bitch._ Just what he needed. Chances were she knew what it was, too.

_Alright. Thanks for the intel. Mokie, have you got any new information on Raven and Valon?_

Mokuba waited until Shadi had left the room before nodding seriously. '_I do, big bro, but it's not good. None of the Raven profiles we've found extend back to eight years old. We know the last name of the Raven that escaped with Valon, though. So either she's lying or—_'

_Or she's changed her name_. Seto finished his sentence. _How long til you can find her prior name, you think?_

'_Probably another day,_' Mokuba said. '_But we have Valon's profile up. I'll email it to you._'

_Thankyou, Mokie. Seto out._

'_Mokuba out. Be careful, Seto._'

He closed the window, swearing under his breath. _Another goddamn Millennium Item. _A "new email" alert popped up.

Seto quickly opened the attached file and began scanning the document.

_*RECORD START*_

_Name: Valon Mubarak_

_DOB: Jan 16 1992_

_Prisoner Number: M-83025731_

_2001: Age 9, arrested for theft and break-and-enter. Served eight months out of one-year sentence._

_2002: Age 10, released CCMJDC [Cairo City Male's Juvenile Detention Centre] in February. Arrested two months later for assault and battery. Sentenced to eighteen months. Served twelve._

_2003: Age 11, released CCMJDC February. Rearrested in June for assault and battery, grand theft auto. Sentenced to two years._

_2005: Age 13, released CCMJDC in June. Arrested in August for theft, break-and-enter, drug dealing. Sentenced to three years._

_2007: Age 15, escaped CCMJDC late January._

_2008: Age 16, returned to custody by U.S. Department of Immigration in April. Suspect had illegally entered the country. Arrested in U.S. for drug dealing and manufacturing, additionally charged with resisting arrest, illegal entry, grand theft auto [two counts], theft, break and enter, and grievously wounding an officer. Sentenced to five years in U.S., returned to CCMJDC to serve sentence. Sentence extended to six years for escaping imprisonment._

_2009: Age 17, escaped CCMJDC with prisoner F-298349027 [Raven Astarte] early March._

_*RECORD END*_

Kaiba sighed. At least they knew Raven's last name. It suited her; Astarte was one of the ancient Egyptian goddesses, and she dealt with sexuality and war. It was little wonder she'd chosen it.

A pair of fingers snapped in front of his nose. 'Wake up, Kaiba. We're going.'

He glared at the fingers' owner. Unsurprisingly, they belonged to Raven. 'I'm awake.'

'Wouldn't know it from looking at you. I guess you always look like that, though.' She left the kitchen before he could get her to apologise.

'She's right, you know,' Joey said.

Seto sighed. 'Oh, shut up, Wheeler.'

After "cleaning" the kitchen—by Raven's definition, shoving everything in the sink and the garbage can—they went to the garage, where Raven declared that Valon would be driving the limo.

'Why not you? You've had more experience driving.'

'Because I shotgunned it.'

Valon grumbled, but got into the driver's seat of the limo. 'You're missing out, you know. This is a pretty sweet ride.'

'It's a limo with its roof torn off. There's no paint job—' she flipped the bonnet up, glanced over the engine and dropped it again— 'No turbo, no supercharger, no _nothing_. The only thing "sweet" about it is the fact it belongs to Kaiba, and probably cost more than this entire house.'

'It has _heated seats!_'

'Oh, big deal. My _bike_ has a heated seat.'

'That's only the engine heating it.'

'It's still heated.' She slipped her helmet on; she already wore her jacket. Seto had taken a while to figure out how she got her jacket on and off without removing her duel disk. Eventually, he'd noticed the hidden zips that let her open and close the jacket's left sleeve.

Raven mounted her bike expertly and the engine roared to life. With a flick of her hand, she indicated for Valon to follow her, and she rode off down the road.

'Alright, let's see what this thing can do,' Valon said. He drove the limo far faster than Kaiba had ever made his chauffers go, and he was certain that by the time the adventure was over he'd have to replace not just the roof but the clutch and gear box too. The concept of "drive it like you stole it" seemed to be the only way Valon drove.

_Not terribly surprising_, he thought, recalling the numerous charges on his record. It didn't help matters that Raven insisted on drag-racing Valon on every flat stretch of road they came across. Unfortunately for Valon, her bike was supercharged; despite the limo's larger engine, she easily outran them every time.

After about ten minutes of stop-start heart-pounding driving, Raven slowed down to ride beside the limo. She nodded to Valon, who told the companions, 'We're about five minutes away. I suggest—_look out!_'

Two stone blocks had suddenly appeared in front of them, about a hundred feet down the road. Valon shouted and swung the limo into a screeching drift turn; Raven threw her bike into a slide. She managed to stop before the barrier. Valon didn't.

The limo slammed into the barriers side-on, sending the companions flying across the back seats. Dust and tyre-smoke filled the air.

'You guys alright?' Valon's voice, choked by dust, rang out.

A chorus of groans rose from the back area of the limo.

'I'm good,' Seto answered. His arm was stinging from where his disk had dug into it, and something heavy—Joey, he realised—was sitting on his stomach, but he was physically fine.

'Same here… if good means in pain but alive,' Ryou groaned. He pried himself up from his position under Yugi.

Yugi's legs were wedged under Tea, who in turn had landed on Tristan. Joey had landed on Seto's stomach. Valon, who nobody had sat next to, had escaped un-squished.

'You lot fine?' Raven's voice echoed loudly through the gloom. It sounded oddly concerned.

'We're alright, Rae,' Valon called back.

_Rae?_ Seto had to stop himself from laughing. Two hardened criminals, and they called each other by nicknames.

A sharp blow landed on his shoulder. 'The hell?' he yelled angrily, turning to face the puncher, only to find—

_Nothing?_

'Stay where you are.' Raven's voice was taut. 'We're not alone.'

'_Damn right you're not!_' A male voice yelled out.

'Who's there? Show yourselves, fucking cowards!' Raven yelled in return.

When the dust settled, two figures were visible. Both wore long black cloaks and dark duel disks. One wore a glowing green stone around his neck on a string, pendant-style. The other didn't.

'Like I guessed. Fucking cowards,' Raven snarled. 'Lemme guess. Orichalcos, right?'

'Doma, actually,' the green-stoned man said.

'Doma?'

'Or Paradius. Pick one,' the second one said, shrugging. 'Doesn't matter either way. They're just front names for—'

'Oh, shut it, you're boring me,' Raven said. 'Let me make _another_ guess; you want to duel someone here. Steal their soul, etcetera.'

'Close, but not quite,' One—the one without the green stone—said, waving his finger at her. 'We want to duel _two_ of you here.'

'And steal both their souls,' Two added, somewhat unnecessarily.

Raven rolled her eyes. 'Alright. Who?'

'You and him,' One said, pointing to Valon.

'Deal.' She strode forwards, Valon eagerly following.

'Wait, this is dangerous.' Yami had taken control. 'You should let me do this. I know what I'm doing!'

'Can it, Yam,' Raven ordered. She snapped open her disk. 'I'm not a pushover either. I could beat you with my eyes shut. These guys? They'll be a five-minute duel, six at most.'

One snarled, but opened his disk anyway. 'You'll pay for your insolence, Raven.'

It was the first time Seto had ever seen Raven shocked. 'You know my name?'

'Of course,' he chuckled. 'Raven Astarte, is it not?'

She snarled. 'Who are you?'

'You'll find out soon enough,' Two said. 'You and your little friend _Valon Mubarak_—'

'Enough mind games,' Valon snapped. He opened his disk and stood next to Raven. 'I take it we're using the regular tag-team system: you two, then us two.'

'Sounds fair,' One said.

Two opened his disk. 'And we're using the regular Orichalcos rules, too. You lose, you lose your soul.'

'The only ones who need to worry about that are you,' Raven said. 'I claim start.'

'How?'

'Ladies first, asshole,' she said.

_If she's a lady, I'm gay for the mutt,_ Seto thought.

She drew five cards, then one more. 'I place two cards facedown and play my Koumori Dragon in defence mode. Val, your turn.'

_Koumori Dragon?_ Maybe she wasn't so bad.

'One facedown and I'll play Robot Warrior in attack mode,' he said. Their two monsters glared proudly at the cloaked opponents.

Seto couldn't help but watch Raven. She was smiling; she was _enjoying_ this. He hadn't seen her smile until that moment.

And as the bulge in his pants attested to, despite the tattoos, she looked _damn_ good when she smiled.

* * *

So, developments. Yes. Still working on proper Egyptian translations; I did, however, manage to find Mubarak [I think it means blessed light or something like that]... could be horribly wrong, but it sounds alright. I hope. Apologies if it doesn't!

Chapter Seven should be up shortly. Reviews are loved!


	7. Chapter Seven

And here we go, ch7! Please note that some [most] of the cards in this story probably do not exist... I know a few do [Orichalcos, Koumori Dragon] but I also know that the way they're used in this story is probably not how they're meant to be!

BIG WARNING: This is where the rating is meant for. Very dark, mature themes in this chapter; please don't read if you'll be offended. Mentions of rape, torture, etc. Also drinking. And language. Be careful.

On with the story...

* * *

One drew his first card. 'Well, what do you know. I play the _Orichalcos!_'

The now-familiar green ring encircled the four duellists, and the circular symbol appeared on the heads of both One and Two.

'Yeah, yeah, what a surprise,' Raven yawned. 'Shakin' in my boots here.'

'Shut up, Raven,' One snarled. He set one facedown card and played a monster in facedown position. 'Your turn.'

Two drew his card, and grinned. 'I play Flaming Zombie in attack position, and activate the spell card Burning Embers. It boosts the attack power of all fire monsters by five hundred points, and reduces the attack power of all water monsters by the same.'

His Zombie's attack points rose—now sixteen hundred—but so did those of Raven's dragon. Hers only rose to twelve hundred.

'Lucky for you, we can't attack straight away,' he said. 'I end my turn.'

'Fine by me,' Raven said, drawing a card. 'I sacrifice my Koumori Dragon to summon Dragon of the Castle.' The magnificent red dragon rose from the shattered pieces of her first dragon, roaring as its attack points rose to two thousand one hundred. 'Dragon of the Castle, attack his Flaming Zombie!'

'Not so fast,' Two called. 'You've activated my trap card, Flames of Redemption!'

'They really like fire, don't they?' Valon commented.

Ignoring him, Two continued, 'Flames of Redemption allows me to trade attack and defence points of one of my monsters with one of yours.'

Seto's stomach flipped. Why hadn't she seen that coming?

Valon began laughing. 'Sorry, mate, but nice try; I activate my trap card Shutdown, which negates any and all trap cards played before it.'

'Shit,' Two said.

'Shit is right. Destroy the Zombie!'

The flame-torn carcass exploded under a ball of fire.

Two groaned in pain as his life points dropped, the magic of the Orichalcos making itself felt.

'Told you it'd be easy,' she commented.

Valon drew his next card. 'You were right. Alright, I play Robot Assassin in defence mode and activate my Rise of the Machines. This allows me to sacrifice two mechanical monsters in order to summon one from my deck.' He rifled through his cards, grinning as he found the one he was looking for. Quickly reshuffling his deck, he slid it back into the slot. 'I summon my Dark Mechanic Monstrosity!'

A large black and grey robot in roughly human form rose in front of Valon. It held a rocket-launcher in one hand and a wrench in the other.

'Unfortunately, I can't attack straight away,' Valon said. 'Your turn. Better make it good, or it'll be your last.'

Seto had to admit that they were good duellists. They worked well together despite their differently-themed decks. Neither of them seemed fazed by the dark magic surrounding them; then again, he supposed, they _had_ been clearing the area for a while now. And it wasn't like Raven would lose her soul even if they did lose.

What did they have to fear?

'I don't think they know what a good turn is, Valon,' Raven said languidly. 'This isn't a duel; it's what toddlers do between naptimes.'

'They say pride always comes before a fall,' One growled. 'Maybe you need a reminding.'

'Of what?' Raven said.

Two started laughing. 'You'll soon find out.'

'Oh, shut up,' Valon said. 'Make your move already.'

He drew his card, smiling. 'Looks like we're in luck, Jonno.'

'Jonno?' Raven whispered. She started to pale.

_Raven, paling?_ This was new. A pit of worry began to gnaw at the inside of Seto's belly.

'Raven, just ignore them,' Valon said.

'She can't ignore us,' Jonno said. He lowered the hood of his cloak, revealing a square jaw that held two dark brown eyes and a thick nose.

'What's going on?' Tea called.

Two chuckled. 'You'll see in a few seconds. First, some explanation. Ever heard of a card called Memories Chain?'

'Of course,' Yugi said. 'Until a three-card chain is completed, it remains on the field, and limits opponents to half the number of trap, magic, and monster cards.'

'That's in the normal game. Under the power of the Orichalcos, things get much more literal,' Jonno snickered. 'Care to explain, Chaz?'

Raven began shaking.

'Just ignore them, Raven, dammit,' Valon said, turning to her. 'They can't fucking do anything here, you're safe!'

Chaz shrugged. He lowered his hood as well; unlike Jonno, he had a rounded chin and green eyes, but his nose was crooked to the left. 'True, she's safe from _us_. But she can't save herself from her own memories. Under Orichalcos, Memories Chain becomes more of a problem. Especially for the skank.'

'_SHUT THE FUCK UP!_'

'Oh, you hurt its feelings,' Jonno remarked. 'No matter, she'll be hurting herself soon enough. You see, Memories Chain forces all duellists to remember one episode in their lives that all of them shared—but each of them will only reveal one part of the linked memory chain. Until the three parts of the memory are remembered—and _showed to all_—opponents are manacled. They can still play… if they can reach their cards.'

Raven and Valon shouted as their arms were dragged out to the side, as if they were being crucified. Thick chains formed around their wrists. They rose off the ground, hovering in the air.

'I get to go first,' Chaz sniggered. 'Damn, I've been waiting for this for too long. You oughta remember this pretty well, bitch.'

Raven began shaking her head. 'No, no, no, no—'

'Raven, tune it out, tune it out!' Valon shouted. 'Look at me. Look at Valon, come on girl!'

'She can't hear you, Valon,' Jonno said. 'She knows what memory I've chosen.'

'STOP IT!' Raven screamed.

The fear and pain in her voice was enough to make Seto feel sick to his stomach.

'What the hell is going on?' Yugi yelled.

Chaz laughed. 'You'll see—right now!'

Raven began screaming.

'Raven, it's only a memory, it can't hurt you!' Valon howled. 'It's alright, it's alright!'

The centre of the field shimmered and merged into a black portal. For a moment it sat silent, but then—

'Whoa-hey, nice tits, shorty.'

'Shove it up your ass.' Raven's voice, a few years younger, but still instantly recognisable.

'Bet you'd love to!'

'Go fuck yourself.'

'Rather fuck you, sweet thing.'

The image faded into view. A nondescript corridor lined with plain doors filled the area. The voices' owners arrived instantly after.

Raven, dressed in a uniform of loose grey track pants, a white shirt and a grey jacket, strode down the centre of the aisle. Her hair was a little shorter and still straight black, and she only had one teardrop tattoo. Despite the loose shirt her chest easily stood out.

Seto's heart began pounding. _That must be the detention centre._

Chaz and Jonno's faces clearly stood out in the blur of faceless boys lining the corridor. They didn't call out; they only watched, smirking.

Raven made her way down the corridor. She eventually reached a door, and made to enter it, but paused. A note was attached to the window in the door.

_Mathematics C is being held in C10 for today only. Late arrivals will not be permitted entry, as per standard centre rules. Non-attendance will be punished._

Raven swore and began running down the corridor. Behind her, a faceless boy moved into view and pulled the sheet of paper off the door, laughing, before slowly following her.

They watched as Raven came back into view, panting slightly as she skidded around the corner. She sprinted towards the door marked C10.

'_NO_!' the real Raven screamed.

'Oh, but we're just getting to the good part,' Jonno snickered.

The companions watched on in horror as the memory played out. As Raven skidded to a stop at the door, Jonno sprang from across the corridor and tackled her through the now-open door. It slammed shut. Another piece of paper appeared on the door:

_C10 is unavailable for classes today due to maintenance. Do not disturb the workmen._

Inside the room Raven was beaten into submission and was forced to kneel, her arms pinned by two faceless goons. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth.

'What the fuck do you want?' she spat.

Chaz moved forwards. He and Jonno stood in front of Raven, four or five buckets, and another six boys.

'I would have thought it was fairly obvious,' Chaz said.

'You can't do shit, fuckwit. Unless you want your dick removed, that is.'

'We're not that stupid, whore,' Jonno cut in. 'No, we're more interested in a few other things you have to offer.'

Two of the boys encircling Raven moved forwards, and Seto shouted in anger as they squeezed her chest.

Raven lashed out, biting one of the boys on their face. He fell back.

'Squeeze your own, bastard!' she shouted.

Jonno slapped her across the face. 'Bad mistake, Raven.'

Chaz laughed. 'Guess what's in the buckets?'

'I don't know, your masculinity? Oh wait, that's right, you have none.'

'Guess again,' Jonno snarled. 'Five week's worth of jizz.'

Joey swore.

So did Raven.

The present Raven collapsed into tears. 'No, no, no—'

'And guess what we're gonna do with it,' Chaz said.

Memory-Raven spat at him. 'Shove it up your ass.'

'We considered shoving it up _yours_,' Jonno said. 'Then we thought, no, that's a waste. Since you're such a slut you probably have a taste for this stuff.'

'So you get to drink two full buckets,' Chaz said.

'And the rest you get to swim in,' Jonno finished. 'Open up, whore.'

Raven glared and clamped her mouth shut.

He sighed. 'Figured that would happen. Chaz, you want the honours?'

'Oh, you know I do,' Chaz said eagerly. 'Listen up, bitch, you got a choice: you can either open your mouth on your own, we can force it open ourselves, or—my personal choice—we can hurt you til you scream, and then we'll just keep it open.'

Raven started bucking against the boys pinning her, but the remaining four boys jumped in, holding her immobile.

'I'll take that as the third option is a go,' Chaz snickered. 'Oh, look here! C10 is the manufacturing classroom. What would suit better, Jonno—pliers, clamps, or a chisel?'

'Pliers, I think,' Jonno said. He picked them up and handed them to Chaz. 'Guys, get rid of that jacket and shirt. Oh… don't forget the bra, either.'

Raven began bucking wildly as the memory faded out.

Chaz and Jonno hi-fived each other. 'Best thing the system ever did to us was send you to the centre,' Jonno laughed.

'What the hell kind of centre was that?' Yugi choked, disgusted.

'Cairo City Boy's Juvenile Detention Centre,' Valon said softly.

'But Raven's a—'

'Raven was a special case,' he said. 'I'll explain later.'

'Your turn, Valon,' Chaz said. 'Remember what happened next?'

The manacles binding Valon's wrists disappeared, letting him drop back to the ground. He rubbed his wrists. 'Yeah, I do,' he said softly. He glanced up at Raven, who was still sobbing. 'Raven… god, girl, I'm so sorry.'

The area began to shimmer again.

This time it was Valon who was walking down the corridor. Unlike the previous memory, however, he was alone in the corridor.

_Fucking hell, why'd they have to stick that crazy bitch in my room?_ His thoughts echoed for all to hear. He shook his head. _Sure, she's a girl. A pretty girl, at that. But come on—look at her record! What's stopping her knocking me off?_

'Move it, fucker,' someone snarled, shoving him against the wall.

Valon shrugged it off and kept walking. _So much love. Thanks Chaz, thanks Jonno, so kind of you to turn the whole fucking centre against me._

Suddenly voices began echoing from around the corner.

'_Whoa, yeah!_'

'_That's the way, bitch!_'

Valon looked up. _Shit, what's happening now?_

Someone ricocheted around the corner, stumbling into the wall and falling to their knees. They scrambled to their feet. Valon took a quick breath.

_Shit._

Raven was covered head to toe in white goo. Her shirt was askew and only one sleeve was on; her jacket had been roughly tied around her waist. She was sobbing loudly and retching.

Seto felt his breakfast rising.

'Hey, are you—'

She knocked against him, shoving him against the wall again, before sprinting away down the corridor, a trail of vomit following her. Valon put his hand to his chest where she'd hit him. When he drew it away, thin white strings followed his fingers.

He looked up after her. _Fucking damn, I'm gonna regret this._

Valon began jogging down after her. Her sobs faded until they couldn't be heard. Eventually, he reached a room that had a thick metal door with a keycard lock.

From around his neck he took out a small card, swiped it, and opened the door.

'Uh… Raven?' he called, cautiously entering the room. 'You alright?'

He looked to the back of the room, where another door led to the bathroom. The door was slightly ajar. From inside, a running shower could be heard. Valon slowly walked to the door and knocked on it. 'Are you in there?'

She didn't reply, and he knocked again. 'Ah, Raven? Are you alright?'

He twisted the knob and pushed it open.

'Holy mother of—'

Raven was slumped against the wall under the running showerhead, wearing only her shirt and a pair of shorts. Her left arm had a long, deep gash from elbow to wrist. On the wall behind her, written in blood, was a message.

_I'm sleeping. Don't wake me up._

'Shit…' Valon ran towards her, punching a red button on the wall. 'Raven, are you still awake? _Raven_!'

The memory faded.

Valon looked down. 'That's two parts remembered, asshole.'

'True, but you need the third to get her back in the game,' Chaz said. 'And from the looks of things, she's out for the rest of this duel.'

The companions looked to Raven.

She hung limply from the manacles, eyes wide open, staring a hole into the ground. Tears dripped from her eyes. She didn't blink them away.

'Raven,' Tea whispered. 'Good god.'

'And now you're well and truly fucked,' Jonno said. He drew his card. 'One on two? Hope you enjoy losing your soul.'

'Guess she doesn't remember what comes next.'

'Or maybe she does, but just doesn't have the courage to show it to you.'

'Either way,' Chaz said, 'She's not going to be able to help you now.'

Seto had never felt as helpless as he did now. He wanted nothing more than to save Raven from her own memories, from the two monsters torturing her… from herself. But he couldn't. All he could do was watch as Chaz and Jonno laughed at Raven's motionless body.

* * *

I hope you weren't too offended by what's going on; I apologise if you were, but I did warn you!

Chapter Eight will be up shortly; 7&8 were originally one chapter, but it was too long, so I split them. Should be up later this evening [by Aus standards]. Reviews are loved!


	8. Chapter Eight

Wow, reader numbers jumped [58 to 103 overnight o_O]. Thanks to all who are reading! Again, cards may not/probably don't exist, those that do don't do what I say they do, so please don't yell at me if you have the card and I'm wrong!

Hope nobody was too offended by the last chapter. Ch9, coming soon!

* * *

Helpless to intervene, the companions could only watch in horror as Valon was attacked time and time again. His life points dropped steadily under the assault, and soon he was down to his last hundred points.

Raven still hadn't moved.

'I play Roulette Soldier in defence mode,' Valon said. His monster appeared on the field. His Dark Mechanical Monstrosity had been destroyed two turns ago, and he was now barely hanging on.

He glanced once more at Raven. 'Come on, girl!'

Jonno laughed. 'Guess she's gone for good. Better say goodbye to her now, losers.'

'Sorry to have to end this, Valon,' Chaz finally said. 'It's been fun.'

'Raven, wake up!' Yugi yelled.

She didn't respond.

At that point in time, all Seto wanted to do was to yell out, wake her up, tell her she'd be alright.

'Care to do the honours, Chaz?'

Chaz smiled. 'I'll freeze him, you kill him.'

'Gotcha.'

He drew a card. 'I activate my trap card, Lockdown. Sorry Valon, but neither you nor any of your monsters can move now. Did I mention they're all moved to attack mode?'

Dark smoke wrapped itself around Valon's wrists and ankles, before chaining his Roulette Soldier in the same way.

'You're all out of luck,' Jonno said. 'Fire Mage, destroy his soldier and his life points!' A ball of red light formed in the Mage's hands.

Valon's head drooped.

'Nice knowing you, loser,' Chaz said.

'_No_!' Ryou yelled.

The fireball screamed towards the Soldier.

Suddenly, a voice screamed, '_Mirror Wall!_' and Chaz and Jonno yelled as a shimmering wall appeared around the Soldier. The ball of flames ricocheted into the Orichalcos and vanished.

'No fucking way!' Jonno yelled. 'He couldn't do anything!'

'No, but I could,' the voice rasped. The Mirror Wall disappeared.

'Raven!' Seto called.

She wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth. 'Yeah, me.'

Chaz's jaw dropped. 'But you—you were—'

'Thanks, Raven,' Valon grinned. The smoky manacles disappeared and he rose to his feet.

'But—how—'

'No more Memories Chain,' she snarled.

'You remembered.' Valon said.

She nodded. The centre of the area shimmered again, revealing a black portal.

Slowly it lightened. _Fucking hell… where am I?_ Raven's thoughts echoed through the space.

The black faded, replaced by an image of Raven lying on the bottom mattress of a two-stack bunk bed. She groaned and put a hand to her head. _I thought I killed myself._

She opened her eyes. Her duel disk was still on her left arm, deck intact. _At least nothing's gone._ Running her hand over it she discovered a thick bandage underneath the strapping. _What—_

'Good to see you awake,' a voice said. 'You've been asleep for two days.'

Instantly awake, she spun around. 'Who's there?'

The door clinked shut and Valon moved into view. He walked past her, stopping to stand about half a metre away from her bed. 'Just me.'

'What the fuck—' She made to get up, but the second she tried to use her left arm she collapsed, groaning.

'I wouldn't put weight on that arm. There's twenty-eight stitches in it.'

She swore under her breath. 'How the fuck would you know?'

Valon sighed. 'You don't remember what happened?'

'I remember slicing my arm open. I would have thought the message I left would have been a pretty clear indication not to do anything to help me,' she spat.

'Can I sit down?'

'What?'

'I said, can I sit down?' he indicated the empty space at the foot of her bed.

Raven hesitated.

'It's alright. I'm not gonna do anything. You want some food?' He pulled a crumbling bread roll out of his pocket. 'Sorry it's a bit squished, but it's all I could sneak from the mess hall.'

She snatched it from his hand and thoroughly inspected it before cramming it into her mouth. 'What do you want?'

'What do you mean?'

Raven wiped crumbs from the corner of her mouth. 'You wouldn't have saved me unless you wanted something from me. What is it you want? You're not getting any favours. I didn't want to be saved.'

'I didn't save you to get anything in return,' he snarled.

'Then why'd you do it?'

He sat down on the edge of her bed, and she withdrew to the far end. Valon noticed, and smiled. 'Don't worry, I'm not about to try anything.'

'Like I haven't heard that before.'

'I'm not.'

'Bullshit.'

'I don't fucking want anything from you,' he growled. 'If I did, don't you think I would have just taken it while you were unconscious?'

Raven looked down. _That's true._

'Look, here's the deal,' he said. 'I saved you because you needed saving. You'd obviously had something pretty shit done to you. I don't know what happened; I don't _want_ to know what happened. You don't need to tell me. All I know is I saw you running down the corridor covered in jizz and puking, and when I got back to the room you were under a running shower with your arm split open and blood fucking everywhere. What was I supposed to do, leave you to die?'

'That was the general idea,' she said softly.

He shrugged. 'Sorry for ruining your plans. I called the med officer down here and you got patched up.'

'No way. They would have just let me die.'

'They were going to until I pointed out that they'd have to report it if you did,' Valon said. 'The warden decided it would be easier to patch you up. You got twenty-eight stitches in your arm, a nice bandage to go on top, and then you got dumped back in here.'

She glanced at her disk. 'So why's my disk back on? Why's my deck not gone?'

'I figured you'd prefer it cover the bandage,' he said. He raised his own left arm and tapped his disk, smiling. 'And I got my own deck. I wouldn't steal yours.'

Raven looked up. 'I'm in clean clothes?'

He blushed slightly. 'I didn't see anything. You already had a clean singlet and shorts on, I just added the shirt and pants. I guessed you'd be a bit warmer and a bit more comfy in them.'

'Thanks, I guess,' she muttered.

Valon shrugged. 'Not necessary.'

'You still haven't explained why you saved me.'

Sighing, he sat back. 'In places like this, unless you got friends to keep an eye out for you, you're fucked whether you survive or not. When I first arrived I got on the wrong side of Jonno and Chaz. They soon made sure everyone knew I wasn't allowed to associate with anyone. If I even looked at someone I'd get the shit beaten out of me.'

'Your point is?'

'The day you arrived in the centre, I knew straight away that you'd be on your own. After what happened to me I figured you'd get the same but worse. When I saw you running down the corridor like that…' his sentence trailed off. 'I don't know, I guess I felt sorry for you. I was lying when I said I didn't save you for a favour.'

'So what do you want?' she spat, folding her arms.

'Friendship,' Valon said softly.

Raven's eyes widened. 'What?'

'Your friendship. That's what I wanted.'

She furrowed her brow. 'What do you mean, friendship? I'm not about to be your girlfriend.'

'No, not like that,' he sighed. 'All I want is for us to be friends. No girlfriend, no boyfriend, no sexual favours—no nothing. Just friends. You know, watch each other's backs, help each other out if they're getting beaten up. That kind of thing. Looking out for each other.'

Raven looked at him. 'You mean you saved my life just to, what, hang out with me?'

He smiled sheepishly. 'In a way. The way I see it, we could both use a friend. You'll have someone to watch your back and lend a hand when you need it, and I'll have someone I can talk to and not get beaten up.'

'You're serious, that's all you want?' She looked sceptical.

Valon shrugged. 'I don't want anything from you Raven, honestly. It may seem strange to you but not everyone in here is a sex-crazed maniac. I don't expect anything more than someone to talk to, duel with, hang with. I don't _want_ anything more.' He put out his hand. 'Friends?'

Tears began to form in Raven's eyes, and she lowered her head.

'I guess your arm's hurting,' Valon said.

She glanced up, saw he was smiling a little. She smiled back. 'Yeah.'

His smile widened into a true smile. 'I'd offer you painkillers but the doc refused to give me any.'

'No trust.'

He laughed. 'No, just a good look at my record.'

Raven laughed too, then stopped, looking surprised.

'What?'

She shrugged, smiling. 'First time I've laughed in here.'

'You mean the maths teacher's lame jokes didn't make you crack up?'

'Oddly enough, jokes about triangles don't really tickle my funny bone.'

'They don't really tickle anyone's funny bone if they have taste,' Valon said.

She laughed. 'True.'

He put out his hand again. 'Friends?'

This time, she took his hand and shook. 'Friends.'

The area faded to black.

'You waking up doesn't change anything,' Chaz spat. 'Mirror Wall only reduces damage by half. He still lost, and you with him.'

'Guess again,' Raven said. 'It was my trap card. I take the damage. And luckily enough, since you two were too stupid to bother attacking me while I was out, I have life points to spare.' She winced as her points dropped, the Orichalcos magic making itself felt. 'We're still in the duel. You, on the other hand, are not.'

'What?'

'You heard me, Jonno. Take a look at your life points. Did you forget that Mirror Wall _also_ reflects half the damage back at you?'

The Orichalcos arena vanished as two glowing green circles surrounded the feet of Jonno and Chaz.

'You're the ones losing your souls,' she spat.

Jonno howled as the Orichalcos tore his soul from his body. His eyes glazed over and he dropped to the ground. Chaz howled as well, but when the circle had gone he remained standing.

'What?' Valon said.

'Soulstone,' Chaz panted, tapping the green gem around his neck. It no longer glowed. 'Master Dartz was generous enough to spare me one. Instead of my soul being taken, the soul in the stone was removed instead.' He dropped to his knees, panting loudly.

'That changes nothing,' Raven said. She began walking towards him. 'You're going to wish that you had lost your soul instead.'

'Raven, what are you—'

'Shut up, mutt,' she snarled. 'He's going to pay.'

She reached behind her back and snapped out her switchblade.

_That's not good,_ Seto thought.

Valon looked away.

Raven grabbed Chaz's shirtfront and picked him up. She leant close to his face. 'This is for everything you did to me,' she whispered. Face contorting in a snarl of rage, she stabbed the blade into his chest.

Ryou gasped.

She let got of his shirt and let him drop to the ground, pulling her knife out. Turning around, she wiped the blade on her jeans. 'Burn in hell, fucker.'

As the companions watched, Chaz took a few rasping breaths, then stopped breathing.

'You—'

'Killed him. Yes.' she spat. Ignoring both Valon and the companions, she strode to her bike and mounted it. 'If you want me, I'll be back at the house. I'm not up for finding Dartz today.'

With a roar, she tore off down the road.

Yugi sat down heavily. 'She just… she just killed him.'

Valon shrugged. 'Fucker deserved it.'

'How can you—'

'You saw that memory,' he said. 'You saw what happened to her. You think that was the only time those two bastards tried something like that?' He ran his hand through his hair. 'She never did tell me what happened that day.'

'I can see why,' Seto said.

Valon chuckled darkly. 'Yeah. Alright; plan change. Forget the warehouse idea, we'll follow that up tomorrow. We'll return home for now.'

'Is she going to—'

'No, she's not going to hurt herself,' Valon said. 'She'll just drink herself into a stupor. We need to get back to the house to stop her doing anything stupid… but we'll leave her on her own for a little while first.'

'Raven drinks?' Yugi asked.

'Yeah, she drinks,' Valon said. 'Now come on.' He started walking to the limo, and the companions had little choice but to follow.

'Aren't we going to do something with the bodies?' Tea asked.

He shrugged. 'They'll be fine. If not, so much the better.'

They drove back to the house in silence. The limo had taken a bit of damage from the crash against the blocks, so Valon drove a little more carefully. Since it was a good hour past noon, he took them to get lunch. Over coffee, tea and a few other drinks, lunch turned into an early dinner. By the time Valon got them back to the house it was seven at night.

He shut off the engine and turned to the companions. 'Just a warning: Raven's a strange drunk. She'll try to kill you one minute and be dancing around the next. She doesn't mean anything she says, so take no offense.'

'…Alright.' Yugi said, glancing sideways at Joey. Joey shrugged.

'Raven, we're back,' Valon called, striding into the house.

'_Valon_!' a voice slurred.

'Where are you?'

'I mished you!'

He sighed. 'She's plastered.'

Seto picked up an empty bottle from the kitchen table. _Not surprising. It's absinthe. And not the legal kind._

Valon walked into the living room, flanked by the companions. 'How much have you had to drink?'

Raven lay on her back on the couch, smiling crookedly. She rolled off the couch and stumbled to her feet. 'I shaid, I mished you!'

'Yeah, yeah, I missed you too,' he said, hooking an arm under hers. 'How much have you drunk?'

'I'm not drunk!' She squinted at the couch. 'Hey, when'd we get four couchesh?'

'Two are magical couches only the drunk can see,' Valon muttered. 'Sit down. Now how much have you had to drink?'

She collapsed onto the couch. 'Only a few… lemme think… 'bout four?'

'Four shots?'

'No, four roundsh of shotsh,' she slurred, waving her hand at the table. Six shot glasses surrounded a half-empty bottle of absinthe.

'Twenty-four?'

Kaiba was impressed. Twenty-four shots would have knocked out a lesser person already. Then again, she _was_ wearing the Millennium Sword; if it could allow her to bench press insane amounts of weight, it probably gave her the alcohol tolerance of ten strong men.

She put a finger to her mouth and thought. 'Yeah, that shoundsh about right. Where've you all been?'

'Driving back here.'

'Where were you? Why didn't you take me?' Tears began welling up in her eyes. 'Why did you leave me here on my own?'

'Christ,' Valon groaned. 'We didn't leave you; you were with us. You rode your bike back before us and started drinking.'

'No, no, you left me here on my own!'

'I promise you we didn't,' Valon said. 'Look, ask Kaiba! He can tell you what happened.'

'Sheto? He'sh here?'

Kaiba stepped forwards, eyes narrowing. She wasn't sticking to their agreement. Then again, he supposed, she was drunk. He could let it slide. 'I'm here, Raven.'

'Sheto!' She climbed unsteadily to her feet and stumbled a few steps before collapsing into his arms. 'My liddle Sheto…'

Tea giggled.

He stumbled backwards under her weight, turning bright red. _Her little Seto?_ 'Raven… can you please—'

'Come here, alcoholic,' Valon said, frowning at Seto. He pulled her back to her feet and steered her to the couch. 'How about we forget about where we've been for now, hey?'

'Why are we forgetting?'

'Never mind,' he groaned. 'Can somebody grab a water-bottle from the fridge?'

'Are you thirshty?'

'No, it's for you,' he said.

'But I have my absh—ab—green fuzzy drink! I don't need water.' She reached for the bottle, knocking over two shot glasses in the process.

Ryou began giggling behind his hand. Raven turned to face him, bottle in hand. 'Whatchu laughing at?'

'Nothing,' Ryou choked, turning his back. 'I'll grab the water.'

'But I don't need no water,' Raven slurred.

'You do, or you'll be in a worse temper next morning,' Valon said.

She took a swig from the bottle. 'Why will I be in a worshe temper?'

He pulled the bottle from her and handed it to Seto. 'Go hide that, will you? As for you, Raven, you'll be in a temper because you'll have the mother of all hangovers.'

Seto shoved the absinthe into his briefcase.

'Here's the water,' Ryou said, passing the plastic bottle to Valon. He was still half-laughing behind his hand. Valon gave the bottle to Raven, who tried to push it back.

'I don't want to drink the water,' she said. 'I want my green fuzziesh.'

He pushed it back into her hands. 'Drink the water.'

'Why do I have to drink the water?'

'Because it's fucking magical water that will kill all the puppies if you don't drink it,' he exploded. 'Do you want the puppies to die? Drink it already!'

Ryou burst out laughing, and Raven spun to face him. 'I ashked you already, what the fuck are you laughing at? Tell me!'

'Raven, it's okay,' Tea said, smiling slightly. 'He's only laughing at joke he heard earlier.'

'Oh.' Raven relaxed again. 'That'sh alright then.'

'Magical—water—puppies—' Ryou choked.

Luckily, Raven had already started gulping down the water and didn't appear to have the concentration to both drink and listen at the same time.

'That's the way,' Valon sighed. 'Tell you what, how about you go off to bed now, alright?'

'I'm not shleepy,' she said, yawning even as she talked.

'Yeah, I know,' he replied. 'You don't have to sleep, just lie down.'

'But I'm not—'

'I _know you're not_—' he composed himself. 'Sleepy. All you have to do is lie down in there, alright? You don't have to go to sleep.'

'Oh. Alright, then.' She yawned again, dropping the now-empty bottle. 'Where'sh my green fuzziesh?'

'You can have your green fuzzies tomorrow,' Valon said. 'Right now, you need to go lie down. Not sleep,' he added, noticing her about to start protesting again. 'Just lie down.'

'Not til I get my green fuzziesh,' she said firmly.

'But—'

'Green fuzziesh,' she said, her voice growing angry. 'I want my green fuzziesh, and I want them fucking—'

'Raven, that is enough,' Seto said firmly. 'You are _not _going to have any of your "green fuzzies", and you are going to go lie down _right now_.'

She folded her arms haughtily. 'Jusht you try and make me.'

Seto sighed. Then, to everyone's surprise—including his own—he marched over to her and picked her up, wedding-style, before turning to hallway.

'I'll put her to bed. Don't wait up,' he said crisply, before carrying his protesting charge down to her room. Behind him, he could hear Valon begin to discuss plans for tomorrow with the others.

'Put me down, Sheto!' Raven said.

'Look, I'll put you down in here, alright?' he said. 'You don't have to go to sleep. Just lie down.'

'I want my green fuzziesh! I'm not gonna lie down without my green fuzziesh!'

He sighed heavily as he entered her room. It was very spartan in its furnishings; there was a thin mattress on the ground covered by a holey quilt, a small box with a tightly closed lid, and a door on the far side of the room, beyond which he could just make out a bathroom.

He gently set her down on the mattress.

'I want my—'

'Here's your green fuzzies,' he said, pulling the bottle from his briefcase.

Her face lit up. 'You're nice!'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm lovely,' he sighed. 'Just don't tell the others.' They'd _never_ let him hear the end of it.

'You want shome?' she asked, holding up the bottle.

_Why not._ He nodded and took a quick swig. Things began to blur as soon as he'd swallowed. _Definitely not the legal kind of absinthe._

Oddly enough, he didn't care.

'You probably think I'm a wreck,' she slurred, tears coming to her eyes. 'I'm shorry I shcreamed lasht night… I guesh you know why now, though.'

Despite himself, he reached over and hugged her. 'It's okay, Raven.'

'It'sh not okay. It'll never be okay.'

'It will be.' Jesus, how soppy did he sound?

'But look how I turned out,' she sobbed. 'I'll only get worshe.'

'You won't,' he assured her. He swallowed. 'Look, when I was little, my stepfather Gozaburo abused the living daylights out of me. For a while I was just as bad as he was; I hurt people and myself.'

He found his eyes were tearing up at some of the memories. Nightly beatings, starvation, whippings and… and…

'You never got what I got,' she said.

'Not exactly the same,' he whispered. 'But if I can turn out okay, you can too.'

She rested her head on his lap. 'Maybe,' she said softly.

He shook his head, not really for any reason. This was the first time in a long time he'd felt concerned for someone other than his little brother. _Could it be…?_ No. He just sympathised with her, that was all. She'd been abused, he'd been abused, that kind of thing.

His phone buzzed, and he took it out of his pocket, sighing. Mokuba again. 'Hello.'

'_We found her, Seto_,' Mokuba said, voice urgent.

'That's great,' he said, idly playing with a strand of Raven's hair. She seemed to like it, and it kept her from getting up.

'_No, it's not._'

'Why not?'

Mokuba sighed. '_She's Ravana._'

He straightened, heart suddenly racing. 'Don't joke with me.'

'_I'm not joking!_' Mokuba sounded close to tears; he'd adored Ravana too. '_Ravana had a hidden record, Seto. That year she came over here—she escaped. She wasn't here because of their parents or any of that crap, she was here to escape the law. She didn't die, big brother. Raven is Ravana._'

No. He refused to believe him. It was _impossible._ The drugs or the drink were responsible; this wasn't happening. 'She can't be Ravana, Mokie.'

'_She is. Just ask the Egyptian government_,' he said. '_Ravana is Raven, Raven is Ravana. They're one and the same. I'm sending you her record now. I'm sorry, Seto._'

Seto hung up, short of breath. No. Ravana was dead. She wasn't—she couldn't—

'Nother drink, Sheto?' Raven slurred.

He took the bottle and gladly swallowed another four mouthfuls. It stung on the way down and it made his vision even hazier—he briefly wondered exactly what drugs were in it, then decided he didn't care—but he kept drinking.

His laptop was still on, so he quickly opened his email; sure enough, Mokuba had sent the record.

The question was, did he want to see it?

Either way he looked at it, things would be hard. If he confronted Raven, Yugi and the rest about it, their whole group could fall over. If he didn't, the knowledge that Raven was Ravana would eat him from the inside out.

Close to tears—he blamed the drink—he opened the file.

* * *

Just a quick note; Absinthe is a legal drink in many countries. The illegal kind generally has some form of drug in there [hence why it's sometimes known as a 'green fuzzy', cos that's what you see and feel]. It's also very strong [up to 80% alcohol - enough to give you a fair amount of liquor poisoning!]. The "water that will kill all the puppies if you don't drink it" comes from an episode in looking after a friend of mine... it was the only way to get her to drink the water ^_^"

Reviews are loved!


	9. Chapter Nine

Yay, another chapter! Warning: things don't get much happier for a long while, okay? Ch10 coming soon... also, shameless plug: for those who like Tendershipping [Ryou x Bakura], I have a short little oneshot up... naughty little oneshot... implied yaoi, shonenai, etc. Late At Night is the name; read if you like that kinda stuff.

Double disclaimer [forgot last chapter!]: the day I own YGO, it will be re-rated R, and Bakura and Ryou will get _much_ more onscreen time... ^_^ So would Seto.

* * *

The file was similar to Valon's in formatting and font; he looked at the document, but didn't read it. The words were just symbols, with no meaning or importance.

Raven giggled childishly from her spot on the mattress. 'I shee _faeriesh!_'

Seto glanced at the ceiling. He'd had a fair amount of absinthe, but not quite enough to hallucinate yet. He was a lightweight—compared to her, everyone was—and knew he'd regret it tomorrow. But _god_, he needed to be drunk tonight. It'd be the only way he'd get some sleep.

'Sheto, do you shee them?'

'I shee them Raven…' he let his sentence trail off. _She's Ravana, remember?_

_No! She can't be._ He argued with himself.

_Read the file and find out…_

'Sheto, why are your eyesh leaking?' A soft hand ran itself over his cheek and he jumped. He hadn't even noticed he was… _crying_?

'Becaushe I jusht found out shomething I didn't want to hear,' he said, not really talking to her. He was crying, over _what?_ He didn't cry! Then again, normally he could pronounce his words clearly, and had a grasp of basic grammar.

He hastily wiped his eyes and turned to the file. Almost against his own will, he began reading.

_*RECORD START*_

_Name: Raven Astarte_

_DOB: August 1992. Date unknown._

_Prisoner Number: F-298349027_

_2008: Age 16, returned to custody by U.S. Department of Immigrations in early July. Suspect had illegally entered country. Arrested in U.S. for grand theft auto [four counts], break and enter [three counts], assault [five counts], manslaughter [two counts], resisting arrest and grievously wounding an officer. Also charged with one count of murder one [victim, by own confession: Ravana Moto]._

Seto caught his breath. Raven had—had—_killed_ Ravana. No. It was impossible.

He cursed under his breath. How many times had he used that phrase in the last hour? He consoled himself with the knowledge that Valon obviously hadn't escaped with Raven the first time round; he'd been rearrested in April, she in July.

She couldn't be Ravana. Raven was a murder, convicted criminal—Ravana wasn't. Ravana was _dead_. Killed by Raven. If this was true, though, why was Mokuba saying she _was_ Raven?

_Suspect sentenced to eighteen years in U.S. Sent to CCMJDC on recommendation of Hon. J. Mido._

CCMJDC—the _boy_'s centre. Why was she there? Why hadn't she been sent to a girl's centre?

_In late July, suspect was convicted of a second charge of murder one. Victim was prisoner M-83952005 [Hada Mido]. Sentence extended to twenty-three years, additionally sentenced to six months in solitary._

_2009: Age 17, escaped CCMJDC with prisoner M-83025731 [Valon Mubarak] early March._

_Note: Unsure of validity of suspect's name. Suspect insisted this was correct information. Refused to give a DOB or any supporting information. No records found to prove either true or false._

_*RECORD END*_

With shaking hands, Seto opened the second file.

_*RECORD START*_

_Name: Ravana Moto_

_DOB: June 16__th__, 1992_

His breath caught in his throat. June 16th was Yugi's birthday. 1992 would make her 17 this year, the same as Yugi—the same as Ravana would be if she were still alive. But Ravana didn't have a record… at least… not one anyone knew about…and she was _dead_.

_Prisoner Number: F-039485729_

_2000: Age 8, arrested for theft. Sentenced to six months. Released CCFJDC [Cairo City Female's Juvenile Detention Centre] December._

_2001: Age 9, arrested for assault and battery in February. Sentenced to one year. Served eleven months._

_2002: Age 9, arrested in March for break and enter and theft. Sentenced to eighteen months._

That couldn't be Ravana. It couldn't be. She was sweet, gentle, kind—

_2003: Age 11, released July. Arrested September for grand theft auto, drug possession, and resisting arrest. Sentenced to one year in CCMJDC at recommendation of Hon. J. Mido due to aggressive nature and repeated offences. _

_2004: Age 12, released CCMJDC June. Arrested two weeks later for grand theft auto, manslaughter, aggravated assault and resisting arrest. Sentenced to two years, again to be served in CCMJDC._

_2006: Age 14, released CCMJDC in July. Arrested September for grand theft auto [two counts], drug possession with intent to sell, aggravated assault [three counts] and theft. Sentenced to four years to be served in CCMJDC._

_2007: Age 14, escaped CCMJDC in January. Reported sightings in Cairo, Suez, Ismailia, Port Said, Damietta and Alexandria. Reported offences: three counts grand theft auto, four counts aggravated assault, two counts assault and battery, fifteen counts theft, eight counts break and enter and one count resisting arrest._

_2008: Age 16, reported sighting in Domino, U.S.A.; investigated. No trace of suspect. Brother and grandfather claim that suspect was killed. Domino police force claim that Raven Astarte is the killer; Astarte supports their story, willingly confessing to the murder. Body never found. _

_*RECORD END*_

Seto leant back, shaking. He was breathing much, much faster than normal; whether it was a reaction to whatever drugs were in the absinthe or whether it was a reaction to Ravana's record, he didn't know and he didn't care. His memory of Ravana was shattering.

He saw it now. Ravana had been on the run. She'd been found, but in order to keep her past hidden from her family, she changed her appearance and invented another lie: Raven Astarte. Ravana _was_ dead, killed by Raven's hand; the metaphor had been lost on all. Until now, that was.

Ravana had been a lie from the beginning. Raven was who she truly was.

'Whatsh wrong, Sheto?' Raven's hand sat warmly on his cheek. 'You'sh shaking.'

He threw her hand off roughly. Tears began to form in her eyes and he sighed before taking her hand in his. He'd dealt with crying kids before; he'd raised Mokuba on his own, hadn't he? 'I not shaking… just thinking.'

Did he just say "I not shaking"? What was he, five?

Raven giggled, tears vanishing. 'You'sh drunk, Sheto!'

For the first time in his life, he was and he _wanted_ to be. Ravana had been revealed as a lie; Raven had been revealed as Ravana. It said she'd killed Ravana—god, how true that was. Raven had destroyed every last remnant of Ravana. They were the same person, same body… yet completely different people, and the one he liked was never coming back. His memory of the perfect girl had been destroyed. He didn't want to be drunk, he wanted to be _smashed_.

Suddenly feeling far too sober, he grabbed the bottle and gulped down the green liquid. 'Yeah, I—I'm drunk. Whatcha going to do 'bout it?'

God, he sounded like one of the nerds. Whatever had happened to proper grammar? _Ah, fuck it._ One night wouldn't matter.

He took another swig.

'Give that here, Sheto,' she slurred, reaching for the bottle.

He passed it to her. What was _wrong_ with him? This was Ravana, the Ravana who'd lied to him, the girl of his dreams who'd turned out to be nothing but a dream… and he was still being nice to her.

Suddenly he was aware of a weight on his thigh. It wasn't very heavy, but it was _squeezing_ him.

'What do you think you're doing?'

'I don't know,' she said.

'Why are you shqueezing my thigh?'

'That'sh your thigh?' She squeezed it again, making him jump. 'I didn't know that.'

'I think you did.'

'Sho what if I did?' She looked up at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. 'Whatcha gonna do about it?'

'Ravana—'

'What chu call me?' she demanded, suddenly alert.

Seto's mouth felt dry. 'Nothing.'

'You called me Ravana.'

'No I didn't.'

'Yesh, yesh you did,' she slurred. The tears returned, and she withdrew her hand. 'You called me Ravana.'

'Sho what if I did?'

'Why did you call me Ravana?'

_Oh, god._ He couldn't think straight; he couldn't even _see_ straight. 'Becaushe that'sh your name.' He couldn't even speak properly.

Seto felt his head spinning and his stomach wobbling. Raven was speaking, but he couldn't understand a word she was saying. He tried to listen to her. He couldn't focus.

Slowly, he felt himself sliding into the dark.

*

He blinked open his eyes. He could see a blurred glass of water, brown wood… he groaned as his head started pounding. It felt like someone had taken a crowbar, pried off his scalp and beaten his brain with a baseball bat. His mouth tasted _disgusting_.

Groaning, he raised himself off the ground, closing his eyes to stop the world spinning. _What happened to me?_

He glanced around, wincing in the light. A thin, lumpy mattress lay beside him—lay _under him_; someone slept next to him on it, faced away from him. _Jesus Christ._

Something thumped in the house, and he curled into a ball, groaning. Every last sound sent vibrations through his already-aching head. His stomach was bubbling and twisting. He felt like he was going to throw up.

The body beside him stirred, then groaned. '_Jesus fucking Christ._' The voice was female. It was Raven's—

And with the thought of her name, the previous night's memories came back in startling clarity. Raven being Ravana, drinking the absinthe…

'Who's there?' she grumbled, holding her head.

'Seto,' he replied without thinking.

'Seto?' she repeated, groaning. 'The fuck you doing in my bed?'

He buried his aching head in the pillow. 'No fucking idea.'

'You were both drinking,' a third voice said. Seto flinched; the voice was loud and sharp.

He felt Raven roll over next to him. 'I had fucking good reason to, Valon.'

'Yeah, but he didn't,' Valon growled, and Seto felt something kick his back. 'The both of you need to get up; we're going to the warehouse today.'

'Fuck that,' Raven said. 'I'm not going anywhere.'

'Let me rephrase that. You're both getting up, you're getting up _now_, and you're coming with us whether you like it or not. And you and I need to have a talk, Kaiba.'

Seto didn't answer. If he opened his mouth, he'd throw up, and that _wouldn't_ end well. He felt something around his waist. _My trousers?_ What the hell had happened last night? He remembered drinking, reading her record, then a _lot_ of drinking, then—

_Oh, Christ._

Raven squeezing his thigh, then her crying at his use of her real name, then… then… _what?_

Heavy footsteps pounded the ground, reverberating through his head; Valon had left the room.

His head pounded every time he moved it, but he had to look up. He had to see.

Raven lay beside him on the mattress, looking just as dishevelled as he supposed he did. Her hair was out of her trademark ponytail. Her necklace was skewed to the right, and her choker was twisted. But—and he had never been as grateful as he was right then—she still wore her clothes. Her singlet, at least; from her waist down she was covered by a blanket.

She turned to face him, keeping her head on the pillow. 'I'll repeat the question. What the fuck are you doing in my bed?'

'You tell me,' he snapped. Stealthily, he tried to return his trousers to his waist.

'Tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing,' Raven's voice groaned.

'What do you think I'm doing?'

'Pulling your trousers up.'

He blushed. 'Maybe.'

'Fuck,' she groaned. Suddenly worried, she yanked up the quilt, then sighed in relief.

'We're good?'

'We're good,' she confirmed. 'Still doesn't explain why your pants are round your ankles.'

'No idea,' he lied; he didn't _know_ what had happened, but there was a gob of sticky-looking whiteness near her pillow on the mattress, and it didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

It explained his lack of morning wood, though. _It's either that or the hangover._

'Bullshit,' she said. 'Tell me what you know, Kaiba. Now.'

Her voice was growing louder, aggravating his headache, and he felt his stomach pushing last night's dinner up to his mouth. Ignoring the taste of bile in his mouth, he forced himself to swallow. 'I don't know anything, so shut up already.'

Apparently she felt as bad as he did, and instead of arguing, she slumped back down. 'If you say so, Kaiba.'

His headache was growing, and it wasn't restrained to his head; in the corner of the room, he could just make out a black bra. Ordinarily, he would have been quite happy. He'd spent the night with a girl and alcohol. The girl in question was a thought-to-be-dead crush. The alcohol was strong. But this time, he wasn't happy, not at all. _Ravana's still dead to me._ All he'd done was drag up past memories again.

Luckily for him, Raven groaned and rose unsteadily to her feet. 'Alright, I played nice. Now get out of my room and—and—' she covered her mouth and sprinted to the bathroom. A few seconds later, Seto heard retching.

_God in heaven._ He closed his eyes. _What do I do now?_

*

About an hour later, when both he and Raven had finished throwing up, they made their way slowly out to the kitchen. Valon had evidently told them what had happened.

'Kaiba! Yo, Kaiba!' Joey prodded him repeatedly, his voice as loud as possible. 'Feeling any better?'

'I swear to god, Wheeler, I'll have you killed,' Seto snarled, holding his head in his hands. He didn't have the energy or the strength to push the hand away.

'Why?' His voice rose a few decibels; a fact that wasn't lost on anyone.

'_Because we're both hungover and you're being too fucking loud!_' Raven snapped. She'd already had three coffees, and was cradling the fourth in her hands; it was half empty.

'Whose fault is that?'

She groaned and laid her head on the table. 'Shut up, Valon.'

Ignoring her, he slammed down a pile of pancakes on the table. 'Eat up.'

Joey and Tristan immediately grabbed as many of the steaming pancakes as they could and began covering them in maple syrup. The rest of the group ate a bit more politely; Raven refused point blank to eat any of them. She poured herself another coffee.

Seto poked his pancake grudgingly; he wasn't hungry, but he knew he needed food. So he unhappily began eating. 'Don't you have any painkillers?'

Valon shook his head, but Raven piped up, 'Yeah.'

'How the hell did you get them?' Valon demanded.

She shrugged. 'Don't remember. They're in my bathroom. Go fetch.'

'I'm not the one who needs them.'

'You _will_ be if you don't get them,' she growled. 'Go fetch.' It wasn't a request this time.

Sighing, Valon obeyed her.

Seto resisted the urge to laugh. At first he'd wondered why Valon put up with her insolence, but after seeing her strength for himself, he understood. Even with a hangover, he was prepared to bet that she could still kick the asses of everyone in the room.

'Which ones?' Valon called.

'Strongest you can find.'

Valon returned with a nondescript, unlabelled white bottle. Scratchy black hieroglyphs had been scribbled on the lid. 'Here. Knock yourself out.'

'Fully intend to,' she replied, removing four of the tablets and tossing two to Seto.

'Excuse me for not trusting you fully. What are these?'

'Codeine.'

'How the fuck did you get codeine?' The last time he'd checked, it was a prescription-only medicine, and it didn't seem likely Raven would get prescribed _anything._

'No idea.' She happily swallowed the white tablets. 'Just take them.'

Uncertainly, he did. The effect was almost immediate; his head stopped pounding and the pain began to lessen. 'Thankyou.'

A nod of the head was all she sent in return, and something inside him twitched. Couldn't she at least say "you're welcome"?

He shook his head. _She's Raven, not Ravana. Keep your mind on the present._

'Alright. I don't think either of you two were sober enough to hear the plan for today, so listen up,' Valon announced. 'We're making for the warehouse again. The general idea is to sneak in, find what we can, destroy what we can, and see where we end up. Got it?'

Raven nodded. 'Shotgun destruction duty.'

'We'll go with teams of two or three,' Valon continued. 'I'll go with miss drunken disaster here. Wheeler, Taylor, one of you gets Kaiba.'

'Why us?' Tristan pouted.

'Because you're the only ones strong enough to fight back if he goes nuts,' Valon said. 'You can both go if you want.'

'Deal,' Joey said.

Seto groaned inwardly. _Great_. A hangover _and_ two losers to contend with.

'Moto, Tea, Ryou—you three together, alright?'

'Sure,' Yugi said. He looked happy at the arrangements.

'We'll keep in touch with these.' He pulled out three walkie-talkies. 'They can't be interrupted, and the batteries are fresh. One per team.'

Seto grabbed the nearest handset. No way he was going to let either of his two 'teammates' have it. Ryou took the second, and Raven took the last one.

'As per yesterday, Raven will be riding and I'll be driving.'

'Didn't even have to argue with you this time,' Raven said idly.

'I'm not cruel enough to inflict a hungover bitch on them today,' he replied.

She shrugged. 'Works for me.'

After the last of the pancakes had been eaten, the eight made their way to the garage; the companions quickly settled themselves into the limo, and Raven mounted her bike, snickering under her breath.

'Yeah, I know, I know,' Valon muttered.

One side of the limousine—the side that had slammed into the barricades the day before—was heavily dented and the paint was scratched. With the torn-off roof, it looked like something from a junkyard.

With a roar of her engine, Raven was off down the street. Kicking the battered car into gear, Valon roared off after her, leaving skid marks on the tarmac.

Seto sat with his head in his hands. His head didn't hurt anymore; the codeine had done its job. The screeching and the noise of the engine wasn't what bothered him. No. What hurt _now_ was his heart. And what bothered him was the choice he now had to make.

Lose Ravana for good by revealing who she really was, or lose his own self in the lie he wanted her to be.

* * *

Poor Seto. What's he going to choose?

Again, ch10 up soon... RnR, hope you liked, yada yada yada... til the next chapter.


	10. Chapter Ten

And here is ch10... I really must stop updating so quickly; my studying is suffering! ^_^"

Things are now beginning to go downhill rather fast for our poor friends...

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. Dammit.

* * *

The warehouse was oddly well-maintained compared to the buildings around it; none of the darkly tinted windows were broken, and the doors were all securely locked. There wasn't even any graffiti on it, despite the coatings of paint adorning the neighbouring buildings.

'Cosy little place, isn't it?' Tea commented.

'And well-protected,' Raven said.

'No it ain't,' Joey said. He made for the door but was instantly dragged back.

'Guess you're as stupid as you look,' Raven snarled. She pointed to a small plastic hemisphere—with a blinking light on—positioned just above the doorway, then to a metal box lying half-hidden in the ground by the wall. 'Cameras. Electronic security. No doubt alarmed windows and doorways with card or code access. If we just barge in, not only will everyone inside know about it, but things will be _much_ more difficult for us.'

'So what do you suggest we do, then?' Seto snapped.

Raven grinned. Grinned in a very… _unsettling_ manner.

'Just turn a blind eye and let her do what she does best,' Valon muttered. 'Go for it, Raven.'

Her grin grew wider for a second, before she faded into a shadow.

'What the hell?' Tristan yelled.

'Shadow magic,' Yami growled. He'd taken control from Yugi, despite his aibou's protests; he refused to endanger him. 'The question is, how.'

'The sword necklace,' Seto said, smirking a little. Sure, it seemed petty, but it was satisfying to know something Yami didn't, especially when it was something the Pharaoh should have known. 'It's the Millennium Sword.'

Valon surveyed him. 'And how do you know this, Kaiba?'

'Many, many researchers,' he replied lazily. 'I set them on finding backgrounds.'

'Oh, really?' His voice grew taut.

_Wonder if he knows Raven's true background?_ Seto thought. 'Yeah, really.'

Valon frowned. 'Nosy bastard.'

'Just want to make sure you aren't going to kill me while I slept.'

'Nice to know you care, Kaiba,' Yami muttered.

Before he could give a snarky reply, Valon hushed them. 'Shut up! She's starting.'

'And just how do we see her?' Yami asked.

'Just look.' Valon stared at the building with a look of awe on his face. 'She's fucking _amazing_ at this.'

Grudingly, Seto looked over at the building. His eyes widened in amazement.

The shadow-Raven was deftly fiddling with the wires inside the metal box, and as they watched, she successfully managed to turn the camera off. Now that the danger of being seen was out of the way, she materialised, and began working on the padlock. All it took was a few seconds before it popped open.

'Looks like Bakura's in for some competition when he gets out of the Shadow Realm,' Ryou said.

'Bakura?' Valon asked. 'Isn't that your name?'

'Bakura is Ryou's spirit,' Tea explained. 'Like Yami for Yugi, but Bakura's evil.'

_Not all the time_, Ryou thought; his yami was quite often kind towards him. Then again, Bakura's idea of being "nice" was not torturing him.

'I thought Bakura was part of Ryou's name,' Valon said, sounding thoroughly confused.

As Tea started to explain the connection between the yamis, the Millennium items, Bakura and Ryou, Seto felt himself drift off into a daydream. A daydream where there was no Raven, only Ravana—Ravana with her brown hair…

'Snap out of it, Kaiba.' Something hard poked him in the ribs, but it didn't hurt; _obviously the codeine still works._ 'I got us in.'

The images of Ravana faded, replaced by the black-and-red-haired reality in front of him. 'Let's go.'

'You're good at breaking into places,' Ryou commented.

She shrugged. 'Had a lot of practice.'

_I'll bet,_ Seto thought.

The inside of the building was just as well-maintained as the outside. Not a speck of dust could be seen anywhere.

'Alright, I managed to shut off all the cameras inside the building; the outside ones too,' Raven said. 'All the doors are electronically locked—as I thought—but I managed to reset the codes to 1-2-3-4. If all else fails, radio me and Val. Don't know if there are doors with padlocks in here or not.'

'I'm sure we'll be fine,' Ryou said.

'Good.' She paused, surveying the halls; one path went to the left, another to the right, and the final one led straight ahead. No lights were on, leaving the far ends of the paths in gloom. 'Tell you what. Val and I will take the straight path. Kaiba, dog boy and Taylor can take the left, Ryou, Tea and Yami can take the right. Radio if you run into anything.'

And with that, she dragged Valon down the centre path and out of sight, leaving the remaining six to split up as ordered and explore.

Seto's two "partners" were anything but sneaky or quiet, much to his consternation. Their idea of being sneaky was to act like secret agents from movies; making guns with their fingers and jumping from wall to wall like small children.

He shook his head and pulled out the radio. 'Kaiba here. We have nothing yet.'

'_Us neither_,' Ryou's voice crackled. '_Raven, what about you?_'

'_So far, zip,_' she grumbled. '_Run into a few glowing green circles—this place is definitely an Orichalcos hot zone—and a few locked doors._'

'Not locked any more, I'd guess,' Seto said.

'_No, not locked anymore, Kaiba,_' she agreed. '_But all that was in there was a single soul-stone and—_'

Suddenly her voice dissolved into static, causing Seto's heart to begin racing. 'Raven?'

'_Raven?_' Ryou echoed.

Her voice faded back in, but it wasn't anything like it had been a few seconds ago; it was high and rushed. '_Val… monster…help… round room—_'

'Raven? Raven?'

Then the static stopped too, and Seto was left holding a dead radio. '_Shit!_'

'What happened?' Joey asked.

'We need to get going,' he ordered. 'Something happened to Ravana and—'

'Ravana?'

_Shit._ He'd let it slip.

'Ravana's dead, Kaiba,' Joey said, staring at the CEO.

'Look, mutt, I made a mistake and—'

'Hold it,' Tristan interrupted. 'You didn't make a mistake. You're Kaiba. You don't even know the _meaning_ of the word mistake.'

'So?'

'So,' Joey said patiently, 'Using Ravana's name instead of Raven's was no mistake. You know something we don't. I can guess what it is, but you gotta tell us. Now.'

'There's no time.' He made to stride forwards, but Joey and Tristan pushed him back against the wall.

'There will be as soon as you tell us,' Joey growled.

'No.'

A scream suddenly echoed over the radio, and Seto's stomach turned. 'There isn't any—'

'_Tell us,_' Joey said. 'Now.'

Seto closed his eyes. He couldn't believe he was giving in to these two punks. But Ravana—Raven—needed help, and this looked like the only way he'd get to.

'You know how I said I got background checks done on Raven and Valon?' The two boys nodded, eyes wary. 'They're both illegals. Both have done time in juvenile detention centres.'

'Holy shit,' Joey murmured.

'Valon's the better of the two,' Seto continued determinedly. 'He's only got charges for theft, grand theft auto, assault, odd drug charges, that kind of thing. Raven's the big problem. She's killed at least three people.'

'And you only tell us this _now?_' Tristan yelled. 'She's dangerous! She could kill us!'

'She won't.' He knew this; he knew it with all his heart. At least he hoped he knew.

'And why not?'

He looked at his feet. _You made the choice. No time to go back now._

'You remember Yugi's sister, Ravana?' His voice echoed oddly in the empty halls.

'Of course,' Joey nodded.

'You remember she was murdered by some psycho?'

'Yeah.' Both their eyes grew wide in realisation. 'You're saying Raven—'

'Yeah, I am, mutt,' Seto said.

'You mean that bitch killed Ravana?' He began ranting, shouting all the things he'd do to her for killing Ravana, for hurting his buddy…

Seto's heart twisted. 'Not quite.'

Joey's rage-filled rant stopped. 'What?'

'Raven _is_ Ravana,' he said softly. 'They're one and the same. Ravana's dead, but only by her own hand. They're one and the same.'

And with those words, seemingly inconsequential and small, he knew he'd made a choice he could never take back. Ravana was well and truly lost to him now. It was selfish of him, he knew that.

But it was even more selfish to keep her to himself.

'No fucking way,' Joey said. 'There's no fucking way.'

'I've read their records, it's true,' Seto snapped. 'They're the same person. Nobody knows but us three and Mokuba.'

Joey let go of Kaiba's shirtfront, eyes vacant. 'You mean she's still alive…'

Roughly, Seto shoved him aside. 'There's no time. Raven's in trouble.' He took off down the dark corridors, cloak flaring behind him.

'What the fuck do we do?' Tristan yelled, running after him. 'We can't just tell Yugi who she is!'

'We won't have to if she's dead,' Kaiba snarled. _Anything could have happened in the time you two took holding me back!_

Understanding his point, the twosome hurried after him, panting heavily.

'_Guys, guys, we found the round room!_' Ryou's voice, urgent and worried, broke over the radio. '_It's straight from the central corridor._'

'On our way,' Seto replied, not breaking stride for an instant. 'Any sign of them?'

'_Yeah, and it's not good,_' Ryou replied. '_Bloodstains._'

Seto cursed and sped up. 'Anything else?'

'_Not yet. Hurry._'

'Almost there.' He shoved the radio back into his pocket and sprintedonwards. Open, unlocked doors adorned with green circles sprung up with alarming regularity. A puddle of red appeared by his feet then vanished behind him; he didn't stop to look at it, but felt a jolt of panic run through his body.

A pair of double doors marked the end of the corridor. He burst through them, snarling. 'Where is she?' God, even to himself he sounded pathetic.

'We don't know,' Ryou stammered. His eyes were wide and scared. 'But don't close that—'

The door slammed shut behind Joey and Tristan, and Ryou groaned. Seto understood in a flash: they were locked in. 'Shit.'

'_Shit is right_,' a voice echoed. It was male.

'Who's there?' Tea called, voice shaking.

Another voice chuckled; again male. It was deeper than the first voice. '_Maybe you could ask your little friend._'

'Let her go _now_!' Seto yelled. Fuck the nerds; Raven was in trouble. _Jesus Christ, what's wrong with you today?_

'_Oh, honey, what's wrong?_' A third voice chimed in; female this time.

A muffled shout rang through the room, and Seto felt his anger and worry rising.

'_Keep that bitch on her leash,_' the first voice hissed.

'_I'm doing the best I can!_' Now a fourth voice chimed in. It was male again, but this voice made Seto flinch. It sounded far too familiar.

Suddenly the lights flickered to life, revealing their surroundings. The round room was ringed by torches; these were what lit the room, although _how_ Seto could only guess. He and the others stood near the centre of the room. In front of them a balcony sat high above, with twin staircases—blocked off, he noted—leading to the platform. Atop that platform stood four black-clad people and one chained, struggling, Raven with murder in her eyes. Yet it wasn't the sight of her that caused him to shout this time.

'_Valon, you motherfucking traitorous prick!_'

For it was Valon's hand that held the end of Raven's chain. And he was smiling.

* * *

Ch11 coming soon... maybe... hopefully ^_^"

enjoy ~


	11. Chapter Eleven

And, as promised, ch11... ch12 to come up after the next bout of assignments/exams are completed... so a week, less if you're lucky.

Hope you enjoy... sorry if the beginning of this chapter seems a bit rushed, but I couldn't remember exactly how the duel went - I remembered Valon jumping in to save Mai and them all tearing off on bikes, but that's about the limit of my memory.

Disclaimer: Still don't own it, regrettably. Although it's probably for the best. It'd be 18+ if I did ^_^"

* * *

'No need to swear, Kaiba,' Valon said placidly. He yanked on Raven's chain, causing her to stumble to her knees. She choked on the gag in her mouth.

'You—you—' Joey was too angry to get any words out. 'You _bastard_!'

Valon laughed. 'That really all you got?'

'Give her back,' Yami demanded.

'Or what?' The man to the left of Valon spoke up. He was tall and muscle-bound with blond hair and grey eyes. 'You don't exactly have anything to bargain with.'

'We have the dragon cards.'

The other man, a thin youth with red hair, gave a short laugh. 'And you'll just give them to us? I bet that'll happen.'

'It could, if Tea gives enough friendship speeches,' the woman said. She moved into the light, revealing long blonde hair and red-tinged eyes.

Joey paled. 'God… Mai.'

'What do you know, the kid still recognises her,' the larger man said.

She flicked her hair over her shoulder. 'I'm surprised he still can, with a brain that small.'

Joey made to run up the stairs. 'Mai, I swear to god I'm gonna—'

Yami pulled him back, pointing to the green circle on her forehead. 'Joey, there's nothing we can do for her now. She's under the influence of the Orichalcos.' He looked up at the four angrily. 'Who are you?'

'Rafael,' the larger man said. 'Valon you know. Mai you know. This is Alister.' The red-haired man smirked and nodded his head. 'We are Master Dartz's most prized servants. We have been sent to take your souls.'

'As if you'd be here for anything else,' Joey muttered.

'If they're anything like the last two goons we met, they shouldn't be too hard,' Seto said.

Alister looked puzzled. 'The last two?'

'Jonno and Chaz,' Valon explained.

He nodded. 'Oh, yeah, them. How'd they go?'

'Defeated.'

'But didn't Chaz have—'

'She stabbed him,' he growled, nodding his head at Raven.

Rafael sighed. 'You did say she was trouble.'

'She'd be a lot less trouble if we could remove the damned sword.'

'For the last time, I already tried, Alister,' Valon snarled. 'It burns if you touch it. But these chains do fine, don't they?'

_But she's strong enough to snap those things,_ Seto thought. He glanced at Yami, who was frowning at the chains. _Ah. More Shadow magic._

Yami opened his mouth to speak. But before he could speak, Joey butted in.

'Mai, I challenge you to a duel!'

Raven's eyes widened and she frantically began to shake her head. Valon yanked the chain again, knocking her head against the railing. 'None of that, Raven.'

Mai smirked. 'Accepted. Hope you remember what it feels like to lose your soul.'

She made her way down the stairs gracefully. She still wore her purple tube top, her short purple skirt, but now she wore a black biker's jacket and a chaos duel disk. With a sharp snap, it opened.

Joey readied his disk. 'I won't be losing it this time. I'm gonna free you from that thing.'

'If you say so, hon.'

As the two began to duel, Seto watched Raven carefully. The hit to the railing had opened a cut on her head and blood was slowly dripping down her temple. Her eyes were locked on his.

A loud howl distracted him. Turning around, he found that Mai had activated her Orichalcos card, trapping her and Joey in a green hemisphere. Yami, Tea, Tristan and Ryou were pounding on the walls.

As the duel dragged on, Seto kept his eyes firmly trained on Raven's. Slowly, though, she was fading. Her gaze was becoming unfocussed, her breathing shallow. For the second time that day he was scared. This time, it wasn't because there was a possibility of him being hurt. It was because there was a possibility she was badly hurt.

Mai beat Joey down, down, taking his lifepoints away steadily. He in turn landed only a few hits, seeming reluctant to hurt her.

'I summon my Cyber Harpies,' he heard Mai say. 'This is the end of the line for you, kid.'

Suddenly a shout rang from the balcony. '_Oh, no you don't_!'

All eyes turned to the railing, where Valon was frantically untying Raven. She'd stopped moving and her eyes were closed.

Seto felt his heart stop. _Christ, no._

'Valon, what the hell are you doing?' Mai demanded.

'She stopped breathing,' Valon snarled. 'Just finish the mutt, I'll fix this.'

She shrugged and turned back to the duel. 'If you say so. Cyber Harpies—'

'_NO!_'

For the second time, all eyes turned to the balcony. Valon, Rafael and Alister were hanging over the railing, reaching for something high above them. Seto followed their eyes up and—

'_With the power of the Millennium Sword, I break the seal!_'

A blinding flash of light lit the room. Mai screamed, her cry heard clearly above the howls of the others as they were knocked off their feet.

As the light vanished, Seto scrambled back to his feet, scanning the ceiling desperately. He knew that voice; he knew Raven had been faking her breathing problem. But _gods_, what had she done?

His eyes locked onto a dark blur falling down from high above. '_Fuck!_'

Raven had leapt over the balcony and used her Sword to break the Orichalcos. The shockwave had evidently knocked her back into the air, and now—now she lay motionless on the ground, arm skewed and eyes closed.

Abandoning all hope of appearing unconcerned, he sprinted towards the centre of the room, taking her into his arms and cradling her. 'Wake up, Raven,' he whispered.

Around him, he heard rather than saw Joey going to Mai. From the corner of his eye, he could see her disk had returned to normal and her eyes were back to their regular violet. Whatever Raven had done had worked.

Raven's eyes fluttered, and she swore under her breath. '_Jesus fucking Christ—_'

He sighed in relief. She was alright.

Footsteps came up behind him, and a hand dropped on his shoulder. 'She alright, Kaiba?'

'She's fine, mutt,' he said.

'Speak for yourself,' she groaned. 'I can feel four bones in my arm and I know I'm only meant to have two.'

He helped her to stand, hooking an arm around her waist for support.

Mai came over and slid an arm around her on the other side. 'Thanks, hon,' she whispered.

'S'alright,' Raven grumbled.

'Raven, this is Mai,' Joey said. 'Mai, this is—'

'_Ravana!_' With a roar, two bikes cleared the balcony—Alister on his own, and Valon riding pillion with Rafael. Seto felt Raven tense, he felt her yearning to shout out, to lash out. But if she did, it would mean she couldn't deny her name.

They circled the companions for a moment. '_We'll see you soon,_' Valon yelled. With a final screech, they tore off into the dark hallways.

'_Pussies_!' Raven yelled after them.

'Ravana?' Tea said.

'He said Raven. You heard wrong,' she snapped. 'What the hell kind of name is Ravana?'

Yugi took over. 'My sister's.'

'No offence, but it's ridiculous.'

'It's yours,' Joey said quietly.

Raven snapped her head up. 'My name is _Raven_.'

'No, your _real_ name,' he said.

'What?' Yugi whispered.

Joey put a hand on his shoulder, face filled with pain. 'Yug, buddy, I'm real sorry to have to tell you this. You know how moneybags ordered background checks?'

Yugi nodded dumbly.

Raven snarled. 'He found my record. Nothing else.'

'Yeah, your record, with the three murders,' Tristan growled.

Mai dropped her arm from around Raven, and the companions backed away.

'Oh, for fuck's sake, it was two and a case of self-defence,' she snarled. 'They all deserved it, regardless. I'm not going to kill any of you.'

Ignoring her, Joey continued. 'Yug, you knew Ravana had a record?'

He shook his head, tears beginning to form. 'She didn't!'

'She did,' Seto said. He empathised with the young boy; for the first time, there was no malice behind his words. 'Ravana had a record, beginning at age eight. The same time Raven said _hers_ started. But Raven's record only goes back to age sixteen.'

'No, it goes back to age eight,' Raven snarled. 'You're lying. I'm not Ravana. Stop making up shit to try and prove your lie.'

'I'm not, and you know it.'

'Yours started the same age Ravana's stopped,' Tristan said.

Yugi began shaking. 'No. Ravana's dead. She was murdered. She came over here because our parents were too busy for her.'

In his arms, Seto could feel Raven begin trembling. Whether in anger or in pain, he didn't know.

'She didn't,' Joey said. 'She was on the run from the law back in Egypt. When they caught up with her over here, she didn't want to shame you so—'

'So she invented a new name, with a new appearance to go with it,' Ryou murmured. 'To the law, Ravana had been killed.'

'And miss Raven Astarte confessed to it,' Seto added.

'Yeah, I killed the bitch. So what?' Raven snapped.

'You killed her, but only in a metaphorical sense,' he said. 'Physically she's still alive. She's _you_. You can't hide it.'

Yugi rounded on Raven, staring at her, looking over her head to toe. 'No. I would have known. Ravana had scars, remember? She had a big one on her left shin, and another on her neck—'

Hesitatingly, Tea moved to lift up Raven's pant leg. Raven made to move, but Seto held her still. He expected her to fight back, to throw him off easily. She didn't. Was it because she knew in her heart she'd lost the battle?

'_I'm sorry,_' Seto whispered in Raven's ear. '_I'm sorry._' And he meant it.

The companions gasped as her shin came into view. A huge, dark, looping scar ran from the base of her kneecap to about two inches above her ankle.

'You mean like that?' Mai asked.

Yugi's eyes filled with tears. 'No. She's not Ravana. Ravana _died—_I helped organise her funeral! She's a lying, slutty, immature and law-breaking bitch and—'

'Oh, fuck it all,' Raven exploded. 'I'm your fucking twin sister.' She threw off Seto, healing her arm in a flash of blinding light. 'You want the truth? Kaiba, the fucking meddling bastard he is, is right. I _am_ Ravana.'

For the first time since he'd seen her, Seto thought he saw a glimpse of regret in her eyes.

'What they say is true. I ran from the detention centre and came here illegally. When they caught up with me, I couldn't let the image of Ravana be ruined… she was everything I wanted to be. So I lied. I became Raven Astarte. I told the cops I murdered Ravana, threw her body in the ocean so they couldn't find it. I told them her I killed her because she'd seen me steal something, killed her while she was on her way to a date.'

Seto looked away guiltily.

'With _him_?' Yugi asked.

'Yeah, with him,' Raven snarled. 'I watched you all through the trial. I watched _all_ of you, crying for Ravana, crying for _me_.' Her fists clenched. 'And I respected you too much to reveal her for the lie she was. I didn't want to hurt you more than was necessary.'

'So you pretended to be dead instead?' Yugi spat. 'Oh, that's so much kinder!'

'To you it would have been.'

'Oh, really? Just why?'

'Because of the fucking family honour. _You_ were the one who got sent to live over here with Solomon because _you_ were a boy. Mum and Dad, may they rot in the underworld, decided _you_ had more of a chance of making it big. I got left in Egypt in a shitty little public school while you got to attend the prestigious Domino Private in the USA!'

She took a deep breath in. 'All that ever mattered to you and Solomon was honour. Whether you got good grades, whether you kept face in public—all that crap. I knew that you'd disown me if you found out about my past. It was easier on you two if I died.'

'_But not easier on you,_' Seto whispered in her ear. '_Or me._' She shook him off.

'I wish you _had_ died.'

'If it meant I'd never have to deal with your shit again, I wish I had too,' she snarled.

Breathing heavily, Yugi slowly walked over to her.

'What do you want to hear? Sorry?' She folded her arms. 'I'm not. I made my choices. I'll never take them back.'

Yugi punched her, hard, knocking her face to the side.

Seto drew his breath in; surely she'd kill him. But instead she merely brought her head up again to look him in the eye. 'I'm not sorry, _brother_.'

He drove his fist into her gut, bringing her to her knees. 'I'm not your brother.' Angrily, he slammed his fists and feet against her again and again, knocking her to the ground over and over. 'You are _not_ my sister.'

Nobody made any effort to stop him.

For a full minute he beat her, tears welling in his eyes. 'You aren't Ravana. Ravana—'

Then, rage expended, he broke into sobs and ran from the building. Tea glared at Raven, spat at her, then sprinted after Yugi, followed closely by Ryou. Joey, Mai and Tristan quickly followed them out.

Seto knelt by Raven's panting body. She lay facedown on the ground, arms folded above her head; her hair was knotted and skewed, her legs akimbo. She hadn't resisted Yugi's attack at all.

As he put his hand on her shoulder, he realised she was silently crying.

'I'm sorry,' he said softly. 'I wasn't going to tell them. I really wasn't.'

'Was that why you were drinking too?' Her voice was cracking.

'Yeah.'

She took a shuddering breath in. 'Was that why you were so worried earlier?'

He put both his hands on her shoulders, rubbing them in small circles. 'Yes.' Gently, he rolled her onto her side. 'I'm sorry, Ravana.'

'It's Raven,' she said. 'Ravana's dead, Seto. She died the moment Yugi said I wasn't his sister.' Grudgingly, she wiped her face and brought herself to hands and knees.

Seto pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. He felt her stiffen, then slump.

'No,' she said, pushing away. 'I don't deserve that. Remember, Seto, I'm not Ravana.' She looked up yearningly. 'Ravana did like you. She positively adored you. But she's dead, and no amount of love can bring her back. Forget her. Forget she ever existed.' She rose to her feet, leaving him kneeling. 'It's for the best.'

And slowly she walked away into the corridors.

Seto remained kneeling on the ground for a few minutes, thinking hard. His phone buzzed; Raven had sent him a message, ordering him to take the others back to the house. She had a few things to take care of first. He read it, twice, replied to her and moved it to a folder. How she'd gotten his number he had no idea, but he didn't care.

When he made it out of the building, he found Yugi in tears surrounded by his friends. Most of them had tears in their own eyes. Raven was right; they really had liked Ravana.

Just as she was right in that he'd loved her.

He passed on the message and started up the limo. Silently they piled in. About a half-mile down the road they heard an explosion—behind them, all that remained of the Doma building was a mushroom-shaped cloud of black smoke. Seto watched it for a few seconds in the side mirror before continuing the rough journey.

Back at the house the companions remained mostly silent. Joey and Mai had a long talk in the living room while their friends commiserated over tea and coffee in the kitched; Seto chose to settle down in Raven's room. Despite the night's drinking, it only smelled of her.

Idly, he flicked through his phone, smiling sadly to himself. He still had every message he'd sent to and received from Ravana, and now he contented himself with reading through them.

_Ravana: Hey, just Ravana here. Got your number and figured I'd test it._

The very first message.

_Ravana: Hah, too true… he's a good brother and all, but a bloody annoyance in the duelling ring. Maybe you and I could tag-team him down :-P._

_Seto: You couldn't handle tag-teaming with me ;-)_

_Ravana: Oh, I could, rich-boy. Face my dragons and die!_

_Seto: You duel with dragons?_

_Ravana: Yeah, course I do. Best creatures in the game. Seen you playing yours a few times… nice blue-eyes. Matches your own._

_Seto: Really?_

_Ravana: Yeah :-)_

The middle of a conversation that had gone for over two hours, all via text. What had started off as a platonic conversation about Yugi's duelling ended up as two-sided flirting.

_Ravana: You know, you act like a cold bastard but you're really nice now that I know you :-)_

_Seto: You know me now?_

_Ravana: Yup. Seto Kaiba, multimillionaire genius, third-best duellist in the world._

_Seto: Only third? Who else is there besides your brother?_

_Ravana: Me, of course. I outrank him!_

_Seto: Bet I could change that. Duel sometime?_

_Ravana: Sure thing. Park after school tomorrow, in the little pagoda thingo near the lake. Looking forwards to it :-)_

_Seto: Same here :-)_

Their first duel… true to her word, she beat him. She did every time they duelled. Well, apart from that one time she was duelling with a tester deck. But as she'd been quick to point out, that didn't count; none of their duels ever 'counted'. They were just duels.

_Ravana: Got your message. You said to text you?_

_Seto: Yeah. Meet me at the park, where we had our first duel. After school._

_Ravana: Ok…_

His not-so-smooth way of getting her on her own. He could still remember her look of confusion; she'd come expecting a duel, or a fight, but had got neither. It had been the first time in his life he'd been truly nervous about something.

'_Hey, Seto.'_

'_Hey, Ravana.'_

'_So why'd you get me here? You know where I live. You got my number. I gotta help Grandpa in the shop this afternoon, you knew that. Why here, why now?'_

_He leant against the pagoda railing, suddenly nervous and unsure. 'Because.'_

_She took a step towards him. 'Because? If you want a duel or a fight, all you have to do is ask.'_

'_I don't want either.'_

_Her eyes creased. 'Then what do you want?'_

'_You know the dockside festival that's on next week?'_

'_Yeah.'_

_He took a deep breath. 'I was wondering if you'd like to go there with me.' And he turned to face the lake, eyes closed and breath still, waiting for the punch or the refusal that was certain to follow. Why had he done this?_

'_Sure.'_

'_What?'_

_He turned back, found her smiling. 'I said sure. Saturday alright with you?'_

'_It's perfect. Ten o'clock?'_

'_Ten it is.'_

_'Looking forwards to it.'_

_Just before she left for the game shop, she took his hand and planted a chaste kiss on his cheek. 'Same here.'_

_And as he watched her run off through the park, he found himself smiling._

God, how well he remembered that day. He could feel tears beginning to spring to his eyes.

_Moto: Kaiba, when you get this, reply._

_Seto: What do you want, Moto?_

It was three in the afternoon on Saturday. Ravana hadn't shown up, but he'd waited; he'd waited all day. He'd made excuses for her: she'd had to work unexpectedly, she'd had trouble getting down there, Yugi had caused a stir. Then, about noon, he'd gotten angry. He should have known better. Furious, he'd turned off his phone. By the time he'd received Yugi's text he was steaming.

_Moto: It's Ravana._

_Seto: What about her?_

_Moto: She's dead._

Two words. Two words, and the growing warmth in his heart was sent back to the ice age.

_Seto: You're lying._

_Moto: I swear to god I'm not lying. They said she'd been walking down the pier and some psycho bitch killed her and threw her in the ocean. She didn't even care that she'd done it! _

_Seto: I don't believe you._

_Moto: Ask the Domino City police, then. They've got the bitch in custody now. Ravana shouldn't even have been near her, she said she was going to see some movie with a friend… nowhere near the docks._

It had been his fault she'd been at the docks, his fault she'd been killed. Of course, he now knew she hadn't died, but at the time he'd been shattered.

_Seto: That's impossible. I saw her at school yesterday. _

The next message he received was from the police, expressing condolences for his loss and a report on the killer, Raven Astarte.

Ten minutes later, his phone had gone off again, with the last message he had in the folder. Thankfully, he'd made it back to his mansion, so nobody saw him dissolving into sobs.

_Ravana: On my way now. Was thinking of you all night; couldn't sleep! Missed you. Can't wait to see you there. Xx_

It _had_ been the last message. Now… now there was one more, marked 'replied to' and from the contact delegated as Raven.

_Raven: It's Raven. Take the others back to the house in the limo. I have a few things to take care of before I join you. If I come back. And I lied… I _am_ sorry. But not for lying. Only for hurting you._

Hands shaking, he clicked on the link to his reply. He read it once before hurling his phone across the room, tears slowly leaking from his eyes.

_Seto: Alright. I will. Please do come back. We need your help with this, and I need you here. I'm sorry, but I won't forget. I can't. Remember? "Missed you. Can't wait to see you there. Xx". Don't care if you're nobody's Raven or my Ravana. I miss you. Please come back._

He rolled onto her bed, burying his face in the pillow he'd used last night. He heard his phone buzz but left it where it was. So he didn't see the message.

_Raven: It's hypocritical, I know. I can't forget either. But we must; things have changed. We have changed. I missed you then, and although I miss you now, I won't say it. See you when I get there… her Seto. ~nobody's Raven_

_

* * *

_

Valon's a bastard, I know... poor Raven. Poor Seto. Poor Yugi! He may seem slightly OOC, but I think you'd be angry if you thought-to-be-dead twin sister was revealed as being a) alive and b) a lie, and the complete opposite of what you remembered her to be. I know I'd be angry with them... poor little Yugi. Oh, and sorry for the throwing-in of the Dragon Cards subplot... I only remembered about it writing this chapter... oops. It will be fleshed out, just as it was in the real thing, promise!

Reviews are loved! ^_^


	12. Chapter Twelve

And it's up! Sorry for the delay but I got swamped with work and illness and bleh. May be a while til next update as QCS is coming up x_X [big big big test].

DISCLAIMER: Still don't own it, DAMMIT.

Hope you like ~

* * *

Late that night, Seto heard Raven quietly motor into the garage and quickly made his way to the kitchen. The others were already there. She walked into the kitchen silently.

'Food,' Raven said. It wasn't an offer, nor a request for gratitude; her voice was flat. She dropped two plastic bags on the table. 'Pizza. Soft drink. Eat.'

And before anyone could speak, she had left the room.

'Go to hell,' Yugi muttered under his breath.

'Do you think she wants any?' Mai asked.

'If she wanted some, she should've got it before giving it to us,' Joey said. 'She had her chance. If she starves, so much the better.'

Mai looked a little uncertain, but shrugged and started eating.

'I don't believe you freaks,' Seto said. 'She got herself chained up, beaten up, broke her arm to save the mutt and Mai, and you're all treating her like she's shit.'

'She _is_,' Tea said. She put a protective hand on Yugi's shoulder. 'You have no idea how much she hurt Yugi with her actions.'

'You think I wasn't hurt?'

'It's _your_ fault she had to do this in the first place!'

Seto blinked. 'What did you say, Wheeler?'

'I said it's your fault she had to pretend to be someone else in the first place. If she hadn't been going to the docks to meet you—'

'What?' Yugi asked.

'I saw him flinch when she mentioned dates,' Joey said. 'That's why she was at the docks, wasn't it, Kaiba? You asked her there.'

'Yeah. So?' He grabbed two pieces of cheese pizza.

'So it's your fault she got caught.'

'Don't blame Kaiba, hon,' Mai said. 'They would have caught up with her eventually.'

'And at least I'm not ungrateful for her help.'

'Who says we want or need her help?' Yugi folded his arms defiantly. 'I don't.'

Sighing, he pushed his chair back and stood up. 'Look, Moto, here's the facts. She knows a lot about these freaks and she has the skills to take them down. Her Sword gives her the equivalent of thirteen souls. If we lose a duel, she'll be able to bring us back. She's strong enough to protect us from anything that comes our way. Yeah, she's a bitch. Yeah, she's a liar. And yeah, she's your twin sister gone horribly wrong. But we need her.' He turned, pizza and plate in hand, and began walking out of the kitchen. 'So I suggest you get used to having her around.'

He made his way back to Raven's bedroom, entering without bothering to knock.

'What do you want?' She was sitting cross-legged on the mattress, faced towards her window. Her back was turned to him.

'I brought food.'

She didn't thank him or ask him why. 'That wasn't what I asked.'

'Fine. Are you hungry?'

'No.'

'Too bad. You need to eat.'

'Fuck you.' Her voice sounded oddly calm.

'Let me rephrase that. You're eating whether you like it or not.'

'Let _me_ rephrase. _Fuck you_.'

Angry, he grabbed her shoulder. 'Look, bitch I—I…' He cleared his throat. 'Jesus.'

'You telling me you've never seen blood before?'

Her duel disk sat by her feet—the first time he'd ever seen her without it, he realised, she'd even worn it while she was sleeping—and in her right hand she held a small knife. From elbow to wrist her left arm was covered in dark scars. Two freshly bleeding cuts lay two inches down from her wrist, across her thin arms.

He grabbed her arm, anger doubled. 'What the fuck is this?'

'What's it look like, Kaiba?'

'Oh, shut your sarcasm! Why the hell are you doing this?'

'I would have _thought_ that was fairly obvious,' she snarled, pulling her arm away. Casually she made another incision. 'It makes me feel better.'

'Stop it. Now.'

She smirked a little. 'Make me.' A fourth cut joined the last three.

As she put the knife to her skin for the fifth cut, he grabbed the knife in one hand and her arm in the other. 'Stop it.'

'Why should I?' Easily, she sliced another two cuts into her flesh and he cursed, remembering her strength.

'Because it's hurting you.'

'That—' a fresh patch of blood began to form— 'Is the whole point.'

'It's hurting me, too.'

Two drops, spilling over, hit the floor. 'Why would I care if you were hurt?'

'You missed me.'

The knife paused, hovering just above the skin. 'That was then.' _Slice_. 'This is now. Besides… it's not as if it's any skin off your nose, Kaiba.'

'Only off your arm,' he murmured, eyes locked on the blood beginning to pool on the floor. It was wrong, so very wrong, but it was entrancing him. Every drop seemed to fall in slow motion, sending ripples across the growing puddle. Each new slice made him feel sick to the stomach but he couldn't stop watching; he couldn't have made her stop not matter how hard he tried.

'Exactly.'

Slowly, he sat down beside her. 'Is this why you always wear your disk?'

'Yeah.' Her voice was soft now, slower. How much blood had she lost?

'You should stop now. You'll end up killing yourself.'

'That wouldn't be so bad.'

Firmly, he put his hand over hers. 'Enough. Stop.'

'I need to cut, Seto,' she said. 'I need to.'

'Then cut me.'

Had he really just said that?

She paused. 'I can't. That's not right. I want to hurt myself, not you.'

'Then stop.' He rolled up his sleeve, careful not to lose her eye contact. 'If you can't stop, if you _need_ to cut, then use my arm. But don't look at it. Look at me.'

Her eyes began to lilt down, and he put his free hand under her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. 'Look at me while you cut, or don't cut at all.'

As he felt the first scrape of metal on skin, she whispered, '_It's still cutting, Seto, whether it's your hand or mine that does it._'

He hadn't cut himself, not for years—not since Gozaburo had gone, in fact. After that he'd had no reason to. Yet he could never remove the scars. 'I had reason to.'

The metal stopped before it made a real cut. 'What were your reasons?'

'My stepfather.'

'Gozaburo? What'd he do that was so bad?'

'Much the same as Jonno and Chaz did to you,' Seto said quietly. 'Just less humiliating and more painful.'

Her hand snaked around his and squeezed tightly. The metal moved away; she was slumping onto his chest. Quickly he picked her up and carried her to the bathroom.

'Don't bother,' she murmured sleepily. 'It'll probably be better this way for everyone.'

He began to wash the blood from her arm. 'It won't be. Things get better.'

'Not this time…' Tears began to snake from her eyes. 'Valon's a traitorous prick. You lot all know who I am. My brother isn't my brother anymore. I'm not who I was anymore.'

'We need you.' He quickly searched through the bathroom cupboard for a first-aid kit. _Whiskey, pills, more pills, absinthe…_ eventually, behind a half-empty bottle of rum, he found a rudimentary medical kit.

She gave a short, barking laugh. 'No you don't. You got enough duellists to take them on. What the fuck could you need me for?'

He pressed gently against the cuts until the flow of blood was reduced to a trickle before removing antiseptic cream and a bandage from the kit. Raven didn't flinch as the cream was spread over her arm; was her pain tolerance increased too?

'Driving. Planning. Your brilliant personality.'

He was surprised when she actually laughed. 'Your horrible sense of humour…'

The bandage was a snug fit around her arm. He tied it off in a double-knot before carrying her back to her bed and laying her down.

For a while she raved and ranted about everything from the centre to her life before Raven was born. All Seto did was sit by her, occasionally stroking her hair, and daydreaming of how life would have been had she not been found.

Eventually she stopped talking. He looked down, worried, but it was needless; _she's only sleeping_. She looked almost innocent in her sleep. The teardrop tattoos made it look like she was crying. He wiped away the real ones before tucking her in, leaving a glass of water by her pillow.

Briefly he considered staying with her for a while. _No_. The others would get suspicious, and besides, he had work to do. So he contented himself with slipping her razors into his pocket and planting a soft kiss on her forehead before leaving the room.

_She's not Ravana. You know that,_ the voice in his head said. _Enough of this babysitting nonsense. Ravana died a long, long time ago. Forget Raven._

_Forget everything._

He looked down at his arm. A shallow scratch had partially scabbed over; he pulled down his sleeve and closed his eyes. _Forgive me._

*

When Raven awoke later that night, she found a glass of water by her pillow and her three razors, along with a note.

_Don't do this again. I won't be there to catch you when you fall anymore. ~ Kaiba_

She closed her eyes, swallowing the lump in her throat. The feeling of hollowness inside her tripled; she opened her mouth to call for Valon before remembering he wasn't there.

She was alone again.

Her pillow was cold when she lay her head back down, but she didn't care. _You're on your own again. Nothing you haven't done before. Guard the idiots, defeat Dartz, ride off into the sunset on your own… it's what you wanted, right?_

_Right?_

_

* * *

_

Right?

RnR, people. Til the next chapter ~


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Here we are, chapter 13. Things are now starting to get back into some form of normalcy; I shall try to update more often.

DISCLAIMER: Seriously, by now, you should know that I don't own this thing. Seriously.

* * *

'_RISE AND SHINE!_' The voice howled through the house, instantly waking all of its occupants.

'What—'

'Get up, and get up _now_,' the voice repeated.

Slowly, Seto blinked open his eyes, finding Raven standing over him and the other companions.

'We're late,' she said cryptically, before vanishing to the kitchen.

'Ain't she in a good mood today,' Joey yawned.

Yugi grumbled. 'Hope she loses a duel soon. I'm sick of her already.'

'You don't mean that,' Tea said.

'Oh, I do.' He folded his arms. 'That's not Ravana, remember.'

'We'll be better off hoping she _doesn't_ lose a duel,' Seto said. 'When she loses all the extra souls from her Sword she'll turn into a physical form of who she truly is.'

'In other words, a monstrous bitch,' Yugi sighed. 'Great.'

Seto remained quiet.

In the kitchen, Raven had dumped a load of take-away on the table; greasy hash browns, sausages in rolls, bacon. 'Eat up,' she said.

'And just why should we?' Yugi said. 'What if we don't want to?'

'Then you can starve.'

Seto watched silently as she shovelled food into her own mouth. She'd woken up again last night screaming; luckily, he'd been returning her razors when it happened, so nobody else had woken. That he'd seen, anyway.

'Ah, quick question,' Tea said. 'Do we call you—'

'Raven,' she said curtly. With a glare at Yugi she added, 'It's not like Ravana exists anymore. To him, anyway.'

Yugi glared back. 'Ravana _never_ existed.'

Before Raven could reply, Seto stepped in. 'Enough. I don't care who existed or who doesn't exist or _anything_ like that. As far as I'm concerned, Ravana is _dead_, and she can _stay_ dead. For the duration of our working together, she is _Raven Astarte_. You are _Yugi Moto_. There is _no _relation between you and you have _never_ met before. Happy?'

Yugi smirked a little. 'Fine with me.'

Raven's eyes narrowed. 'Yeah, sure.'

Seto could have sworn she looked sad, but when he looked up a moment later she was frowning normally.

'Alright.' She clasped her hands together. 'As I'm still sorting shit out from yesterday's… _incident_… do whatever the fuck you want today. I mean whatever. Go bananas, fly a kite, fucking _whatever_. Seto's got my—'

'It's _Kaiba_,' he said. 'And manners, please.'

'You don't have any blackmail on me anymore, so I'll call you whatever the fuck I want and swear as much as I damn well like,' she retorted. 'As I was saying, Seto has my phone number should you need me. Don't call unless somebody's dying or you need a soul returned, got it?'

'Okay,' Ryou said gamely; nobody else bothered nodding.

She nodded curtly before grabbing her helmet and marching out the door. With a roar her bike came to life; then she killed it, before starting it up again and riding away.

'So now what do we do?' Joey asked.

'Why don't we go for a ride in the limo?' Tristan suggested. 'You know, learn to drive it properly. Do a bit of exploring.'

'Sounds good,' Mai agreed. Joey grinned.

Seto sighed; he'd no doubt have to tag along. He supposed it was for the best. _Keeps my mind busy._

_*  
_

After a few hours of driving aimlessly around in the desert, Joey, Tristan and Kaiba had managed to work out the clutch and could drive the limo smoothly. Kaiba insisted on driving, though; after all, it was _his_ limousine, even if it was horribly bent out of shape.

However, when they went to drive back to the house, they soon found they were lost.

'Maybe if you go left here,' Tea suggested.

'We've been left here before,' Mai said. 'Let's go right.'

'Done that,' Ryou said.

'Straight ahead?'

'We've been straight ahead already, Moto,' Seto growled. This was just _perfect_. Not only was he lost in the middle of a desert with the freaks, the limo had only a quarter tank of gas left and there was only about an hour left til sunset.

Yami took over from Yugi. 'Maybe if we just went back the way we came we'd get out of here.'

'We tried that already. Four times, to be exact.' Cursing, Kaiba slammed his hands against the wheel. 'For the love of God, we've seen that mountain six times already! We're just going around in circles.'

_What's that?_ Yugi asked.

_What's what, aibou?_

_That! Look, over by the mesa._

Yami glanced at the direction chosen by his partner, and his eyes widened. 'Look!'

Unhappily, Kaiba looked in the direction Yami was pointing. His jaw dropped. 'A _helicopter?_' Flooring the limo, he sped towards the hovering machine.

'And we're just going to go towards it without any kind of knowledge as to who's flying it?' Tea yelled over the engine.

'You rather stay here all night?' Tristan yelled back.

Suddenly, the limousine was thrown into a slide as Kaiba slammed on the brakes.

'The hell was that for?' Ryou yelled.

'Would you rather I went over the edge?' Seto asked thinly, pointing to the cliff-edge they were now parked sideways on. His heart was pounding. _Too damn close._

Silently, the seven got out of the limousine.

'Where'd the chopper go?' Joey asked.

'I don't know,' Tristan replied, glancing around nervously. 'I say we just get back in the limo and head away. Far away.'

'_Shit!_' Mai swore, stepping back. Her face had gone pale. 'It's them!'

'Who?'

'_Them!_'

As the dust cloud cleared, the companions saw that hanging from the cliff edge was a rope bridge, leading across a seemingly bottomless canyon to a small, round mesa. And on top of the mesa stood—

'Rafael,' Yami muttered.

The stocky man laughed, the sound echoing off the canyon walls. 'Indeed. So nice of you to join me here.'

'You got us lost, didn't you?' Joey said.

'How the hell could he have gotten us lost?'

'He just _did_, Tristan, okay?'

Rafael smiled a little. 'Your blonde friend is correct. You won't be getting back to civilisation any time soon. Not without a duel first, of course.'

Yami immediately stood forwards. 'If you want a duel, a duel you shall get.'

'Excellent. The mighty Pharaoh himself.' Rafael motioned for Yami to come over the bridge.

'What if it's a trap?' Tea whispered.

'We don't have a choice,' Yami said. 'He's got all the cards at the moment. Do not worry. I will be fine.'

Seto almost felt like yawning. 'Hurry it up then. We don't have all night.'

Glaring, Yami walked over to the mesa. Immediately after he stepped off the bridge, Rafael drew two axes. And before anyone could move, he'd thrown them.

With a dull _thunk_, the ropes holding up the bridge were cut, sending the ramshackle pathway collapsing down into the void.

'I will capture your soul and save the world,' Rafael snarled. 'By locking away your soul, I will save the world from the evil you hold.'

'You will destroy it. _Doma_ are the evil ones.'

Rafael smirked. 'That, dear Pharaoh, depends entirely on your view of things.' He threw a small green stone—not glowing—over to Yami. 'How about you see for yourself?'

'I don't need a soulstone,' Yami snarled.

'It's not a soulstone. This is merely an Orichalcos Stone. The darker a person is, the brighter it glows.'

Yami slung it around his neck carelessly, ignoring Rafael's smirk as it began to light up. 'Everyone has some darkness inside them, Rafael. You may go first.'

Rafael drew his hand, then said, 'I play the magic card Guardian Treasure. In exchange for discarding the five cards in my hand I can draw two new cards, and can draw an additional two cards every turn.'

'He's searching for the Orichalcos,' Mai whispered.

'I play one monster in facedown defence mode and place one card facedown. Your turn, Pharaoh.'

Seto watched as Yami summoned Gazelle, King of Beasts and fused it with Baphomet before attack Rafael's facedown monster. _This duel will be over soon._

But when Rafael revealed his monster as having two thousand six hundred defence points—enough to make Yami lose a hundred of his life points—he realised that it wouldn't be over as quickly as he'd imagined. As the duel progressed, Yami was beaten down time and time again. The only life points Rafael lost were the thousand he sacrificed in order to save one of his own monsters. Even after Yami had summoned his Legendary Dragon, Timmaeus, and merged him with Dark Magician Girl, he was still unable to touch Rafael's life points.

'I now play Exchange,' Rafael announced. 'We each take one card from each other's hand.'

'But they only have one card each,' Tea murmured. 'What's the catch?'

Seto understood instantly. During the duel, Rafael had insited that Doma was only interested in bringing justice to the world, returning things to the way they were before evil people such as Yami had destroyed it. _He wants Yami to play the Orichalcos to _prove_ he's evil!_

It seemed that Yami understood as well. The stone glowed brightly as he looked over the card, then faded as he ordered his Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight to attack Rafael's Guardian Grarl for the second time.

'Not so fast,' Rafael said. 'I activate Crystal Seal. Until your monster has three thousand or more attack points, it's trapped inside the crystal prison.'

Yami's eyes widened as his monster was sealed inside the glowing crystal. _Yugi, we're in trouble._

_I know, Yami, but we can't play that card! It's evil! _

The stone began to brighten.

As he reduced Yami to a mere six hundred life points, Rafael remarked, 'There's only one card that can save you now, Pharaoh. Are you man enough to play it?'

Seto watched as Yami's eyes drifted down towards the card. The stone was growing brighter and brighter.

_Jesus Christ, no!_ If Yami played that card, Rafael was _sure_ to win. He didn't know how he knew this; he just _did_. 'Pharaoh, I'm warning you—'

But his voice was lost in a green whirlwind as Yami shouted, '_I play the Seal of Orichalcos!_'

Over the roaring winds, they could all hear Rafael laughing. 'Now we'll see who's evil, Pharaoh.'

When the column of green light dropped back down, the glowing circle of the Orichalcos had appeared on Yami's forehead, and his eyes were furrowed into an angry glare.

Roaring, his Dragon Knight broke free of the crystal as its attack points climbed to three thousand one hundred—but then Dragon Timmaeus vanished, leaving a smirking Dark Magician Girl with the Seal of Orichalcos on her forehead alone on the field.

'What have you done with my dragon, Rafael?' Yami shouted.

Even before Rafael had replied, Seto knew in a flash. The Dragons were creatures of light. The Orichalcos was a thing of the dark. _They can't mix._

'I have done nothing. It was you who sent him away,' Rafael replied.

Yami didn't seem to care.

'_Yami!_' Tea screamed. 'Yami, get rid of that thing! It's evil!'

All Yami did was turn to her and smile, before facing Rafael. 'I play Hand Control. If I can correctly name a card in your hand I can play it.'

_Rafael still has the card Yami gave him when he played Exchange,_ Seto realised. Yami knew _exactly_ what card Rafael had.

Grinning darkly, Yami correctly named his Necromancy card, and re-summoned four monsters from his graveyard. Seto could only watch helplessly as he sacrificed two of them to summon his Dark Magician. For a moment, his monsters—Kuribabylon, split into the five Kuriboh brothers; Big Shield Gardna; Dark Magician Girl and the Dark magician—appeared to writhe in pain, but soon straightened up, each smirking darkly as the five-hundred-point bonus from the Seal boosted their power.

'I recombine my Kuriboh Brothers to form Kuribabylon!' Yami said, laughing as the giant monster appeared, now with four thousand five hundred attack points. 'Scared yet, Rafael? My monsters are stronger than yours, thanks to the power of this card.'

Rafael merely smiled. 'The power had nothing to do with the Orichalcos, Pharaoh. It comes from the darkness inside you.'

Yami snorted. 'It doesn't matter where it came from. It's mine now. Perhaps you shouldn't have given me this card… it's your soul on the line now. Kuribabylon, attack his Guardian!'

Rafael covered his eyes as his Guardian was destroyed, his life points dropping to fifteen hundred. But as Yami ordered Dark Magician to attack he revealed his facedown card.

'Aid to the Doomed!' he shouted. 'I discard two cards from my hand to repel your attack.'

Yami smirked. 'Is that truly all you have?'

Rafael ignored him, smirking right back. 'How does it feel to have your true self back, Pharaoh? The one who draws his power from the darkness?'

'You are merely jealous that I have the Orichalcos on _my_ side of the field,' Yami laughed. 'You will regret giving it to me, I assure you.'

_Like hell he will,_ Seto thought. That wasn't Yami down there; that was something else entirely. And Rafael knew it.

Rafael drew his cards and activated Monster Reborn, re-summoning Guardian Grarl. 'I also play Swords of Revealing Light. Your monsters are frozen for three turns, Pharaoh.'

Yami shrugged. 'I sacrifice Big Shield Gardna to summon my Catapult Turtle. Its special effect allows me to sacrifice a monster in order to inflict half of its attack points as damage to your life points.'

Rafael smiled. 'Not this turn. I activate Limit Tribute. You can only sacrifice one monster per turn, Pharaoh.'

Yami scowled darkly, sending a chill down Seto's spine. That scowl wasn't Yami's, not at all. 'Fine then. I end my turn.'

'Good.' He drew his cards. 'I play Nightmare Binding, which allows me to take eight hundred points from one of your monster's attack points and add it to my life points. It also means that the monster I choose cannot be sacrificed.'

Yami shrugged as his Kuribabylon's attack points dropped. 'With the Orichalcos behind me, nothing you can do will stop me from defeating you.' He drew his own cards, smirking. 'Since my Dark Magician can't do anything now, I'll sacrifice him to use with my Catapult Turtle. And now that he's in the graveyard, he also raises my Dark Magician Girl's attack points by five hundred. You only have eight hundred points left, Rafael. One more hit from Catapult Turtle and you're finished.'

'Perhaps,' Rafael said. 'I set one card facedown and end my turn.'

'Hah! I only have to draw one card and this duel is over.'

A shiver ran through Seto's body. _The duel's over, alright, but it's not going to end well for you._

He drew, smirking. 'I sacrifice Dark Magician Girl.'

Seto could almost hear Yugi screaming for him to stop. But Yami didn't stop at all, only smiling as his monster unhappily climbed aboard the catapult.

'_Go!_' He shouted.

'I activate Shrink!' Rafael called. Yami snarled as his monster's attack points dropped by half to fourteen hundred, inflicting only seven hundred points of damage to Rafael.

'You can't escape the Seal, Rafael,' he growled. 'The Swords of Revealing Light are gone now. The next monster I sacrifice will be the end of you.'

'I suppose we should be happy,' Tristan murmured. 'Rafael only has one hundred points to Yugi's six hundred.'

'But that isn't Yugi duelling. Yugi would never sacrifice his monsters like that.' Joey said. 'He's been brainwashed by that thing.'

'It's what the Seal does,' Mai said softly. Her eyes were sad.

Rafael laughed horribly. 'It's just what I told you. You're evil, Pharaoh! The Seal revealed the truth. This is who you are: greedy, full of hate, a _monster_. Look at what you've done to your monsters. They're creatures of the shadows now.'

They watched as Yami looked over his red-eyed minions, the first hint of concern crossing his face. But it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. 'You deceived me.'

'You chose to play the Seal, Pharaoh, not I. You played it knowing you'd lose Timmaeus. You destroyed your most valuable monster. The only one I feared.'

He drew his cards, smiling in triumph. 'I play Celestial Sword and Guardian Eatos!'

Yami's expression changed to one of horror.

Seto felt his heart grow cold. _It's over._

'The Celestial Sword allows my Guardian to absorb the attack points of all the monsters in your graveyard, Pharaoh,' Rafael said. 'This is what you've done to yourself. You sacrificed them selfishly and now they'll be the end of you!'

As his monsters were pulled into the glowing sword, Yami's eyes filled with tears. '_Forgive me,_' he whispered.

The attack points of Eatos rose to ten thousand.

'Guardian Eatos, attack!' Rafael shouted.

Shouting in horror, all the companions could do was watch as the monster destroyed Yugi's two remaining monsters and the rest of his lifepoints.

The Orichalcos shrunk down around Yami, and Rafael walked over to him, smirking. 'You sealed your own fate when you played that card, Pharaoh. Now your life force will awaken the Leviathan. The world will be saved!'

With a howl, the Seal absorbed his soul, and Yami collapsed unconscious to the ground.

A whirring noise began echoing from above their heads.

'The copter!' Ryou called. 'It was theirs!'

A rope ladder descended from the hovering machine and Rafael climbed onto the bottom rung, slinging Yami's motionless body over his shoulder. The chopper flew over to the companions.

'_Here, have him back,_' Rafael shouted. He tore the necklace from Yami's neck before dropping the body. '_I have all I wanted from him._'

As the chopper roared away into the distance the companions crowded around Yami's body.

'Wake up, Yug, wake up!' Joey yelled, frantically shaking his shoulders. '_Come on!_'

'He can't wake up, mutt, his soul… his soul…' Seto rubbed his eyes. 'No. No way.'

Yami was opening his eyes.

'Alright, buddy! We knew you could do it!' Tristan cheered. 'How'd you do it?'

Yami struggled to his feet, then collapsed back to his knees, shaking.

'Yugi… are you alright?' Ryou put a hand on his shoulder.

'No. I'm_ far_ from alright.'

Seto started. Yami was _crying_.

'He's gone!'

'Who's gone?' Tea whispered.

'Yugi! Yugi's gone!'

'But you're here, aren't you?'

'I'm here. Yugi's not, and it's all my fault!' He collapsed into heaving sobs, shouting out for Yugi to come back. '_Aibou!_'

As the others crowded around him Seto stood back, watching. He understood what had happened. Yami and Yugi were two separate souls. The Orichalcos only needed one. _Yugi sacrificed himself for Yami, even though it was Yami who lost the duel._

No wonder he was crying.

Suddenly a roaring noise began to echo from behind them and he spun around. It couldn't be the Doma gang _again_, could it?

He brought his duel disk to bear, just in case.

'What the _fuck_ happened?' A voice shouted, and he closed his disk again as the dust cloud cleared to reveal Raven on her bike. '_What the fuck happened_?'

'Yami, he…uh…'

She got off her bike and strode over to the still-sobbing Yami, grabbing him by his shirtfront and lifting him off the ground. 'I said, Yugi, _what the fuck happened?_'

Then she noticed it wasn't Yugi. 'Oh, no. No.'

All Yami could do was nod.

'You did _not_ lose his soul!' she shouted, turning red. 'Tell me you didn't!'

'I did,' he whispered, closing his eyes.

'God_damnit_!' She dropped him, spun around and kicked out, punching a hole in the rock. '_Goddamnit!_'

'I'm sorry for making you give up one of your souls,' Yami managed to choke out. 'I really—'

'I'm not annoyed at losing a soul, Yam,' she snarled. 'I'm pissed that you lost my brother.'

Every last pair of eyes widened.

'What, you deaf?' she shouted. 'I said I'm pissed that you lost my brother!'

'But didn't you agree that—'

'Fuck what I agreed to. I don't give a shit if he doesn't think of me as his sister, he's still my goddamned twin brother. Remember back in Domino, Yam? Remember how you promised you'd look after him for me? _Remember_?'

Yami nodded silently, tears still flowing.

She picked him up again and shook him. '_THIS IS NOT LOOKING AFTER HIM!_'

'I said I was sorry!'

Seto watched as she put him down again. She _did_ still care. Ravana was still in there, if only well-hidden behind Raven. _Maybe…_

'I'll bring him back,' she snarled. 'But so help me, if you lose him _again_, I will make you wish you were dead a thousand times over before I kill you. Do you understand?'

He nodded again.

She relaxed a little, frowning. 'And don't any of you dare tell that little runt how pissed I was, or you'll be joining Yam.'

They watched in silence as she closed her hands around the sword, one hand resting on Yami's shoulder. A bright light came out of it; with a howl from Raven, it shot off into the night. She collapsed to her knees, panting heavily.

Despite himself, Seto ran to her. 'Are you alright?'

'Fucking fine,' she snarled.

Another light appeared, this time hovering over Yami. It entered his body. Suddenly Yami was gone, replaced by a shell-shocked Yugi.

'_Yugi!_' Instantly he was crushed under his friends' hugs. Seto watched in silence, feeling rather than seeing Raven get to her feet.

'The way out of the desert should be clear enough now,' Raven murmured in Seto's ear. 'I'll see you all back at the house.'

'Alright, Ravana,' he said softly.

She stiffened. 'I'm Raven.'

'Considering you nearly killed Yami for losing the soul of your brother, I'm inclined to think otherwise.'

She turned and stalked away. 'Think all you like. Ravana only exists in your memories. The only person I am is Raven.'

As she roared away, Seto felt himself smiling a little. _If you say so, Raven. If you say so._

And then he cursed. _No_. Ravana was dead. Dead.

And she wasn't coming back.

* * *

Now things truly begin. Sorry for the rough intro to the Dragons; however, I figure that you probably know of that subplot by now. Sorry for any Rebbeca fans; I don't like her, so consequently she features not at all in this storyline. Unless I need a victim =]

Joking, joking... anyhoo, reviews are much loved, will try to post shortly.

Hope you enjoyed it ~


	14. Chapter Fourteen

And I have some spare time... so you lucky [?] people get another chunk of the story...

Disclaimer: come on, guys, you know the drill.

* * *

They drove back to the house in silence. As Raven had said, the way was clear and easy to find; all it took was to follow the brightening lights in the distance.

Yami had so far refused to come out of the Puzzle. Yugi claimed that he even refused to talk to _him_, apart from choked apologies. Seto wasn't surprised. Not only had the Pharaoh allowed himself to be drawn into the evil of the Orichalcos, he had also lost the duel, and Yugi's soul along with it. As harsh as he might appear sometimes, it was known to all how much Yami cared for his light.

When they arrived back at the ramshackle building they found that the lights were already on and Raven's bike was already in the garage.

'She's home,' Joey muttered.

Yugi stiffened; despite the others telling him that Raven was responsible for returning his soul, Seto had noticed that the young duellist still shut down whenever she was mentioned. _Not surprising, really_.

'Wonder what we're having for tea tonight?' Tristan said, setting off a chatter about takeaway and other food.

Seto growled and stalked ahead. _Idiots_. At least inside the house he could relax. He entered the kitchen and glanced around. _Maybe there's some salad around—_'_JESUS!_'

Raven lay unconscious on the ground.

'Kaiba, you alright?' a voice called from the garage; Ryou's.

'She's out cold,' he shouted back. He rushed to her side and quickly checked her over; to his relief, there was no blood or bruises.

'What happened?' Mai exclaimed.

'Do I look like I know?' He glanced down as the girl in his arms groaned, eyes fluttering open.

'…Kaiba?'

'Hush,' he said firmly. Slowly he helped her to a sitting position, letting her lean on him for support. 'What happened?'

'Nothing.'

'Bullshit.'

Glaring out of one eye, she spat, 'Losing a soul is tiring, fuckwit.'

'And? What else?'

'Nothing.'

He growled, feeling her stomach rumble. 'When was the last time you ate?'

She opened her mouth, then closed it.

'Almost three days, Raven. It won't do.'

'I'll eat when I damn well feel like it.'

'You'll eat right now if you know what's good for you,' he snarled. 'What if this had happened while you were riding?'

'Would it be such a bad thing?' Yugi growled.

'Exactly my point,' she snarled, glaring at him.

Kaiba noticed that everyone except Yugi now looked very uncomfortable; everyone but Yugi knew how Raven was feeling. At least, they could guess quite well. He had to admit she was a damn good actress.

If she was acting.

'Enough,' he interrupted. 'Enough. Raven, you are going to eat. I don't care if you want to or not, you will eat and you will eat _now_.' It wasn't so much an order as a firm request; he knew that she was fully aware that nobody could make her do anything she didn't want to.

'No.'

He frowned. 'Look, just go to your room. I'll bring food down. We need to have a little talk anyway; I'll be there in a moment.'

To everyone's surprise, Raven only sighed, stood and walked dejectedly down the hallway. 'Okay.'

Seto turned to face the companions. 'Explain things to him. Now.' This time it _was_ an order. Hurriedly, he collected a few cold pieces of pizza and took a bottle of water down to Raven's room. Behind him, he could hear Yugi asking the others what he meant; _excellent_. That would keep them occupied.

Pausing before he entered Raven's room, he fixed a cold glare on his face. He didn't bother to knock. 'Up to your old tricks, I see.'

'Not like anyone gives a shit,' she replied, swiftly carving another gash into her arm. She stretched it out, admiring her handiwork. 'Keeps me occupied.'

'Scars last forever. You do know that, right?'

'It's not like the mental ones will go away any sooner.'

He sighed and sat down next to her, putting the plate on the bed. 'I know you're not hungry, but if you don't eat soon you'll collapse again and we need your help with this mess. We would have lost your brother today if it wasn't for you.' He watched carefully, gauging her reaction.

She stiffened momentarily before carelessly slipping her tank top over her head. 'Wouldn't have mattered much. It's Yami's duelling that we need more.'

'You… ah…' Blushing, he turned to face the doorway.

'Oh, don't be such a prude. I just need a different place to cut. I'm sure you've seen the female body before.'

He could feel his blush darken. 'No, but that doesn't mean I need or want to see yours.'

She laughed. 'Oh, really? After what happened that night we were drinking—'

'What?'

'Seto, you really thought I didn't notice my bra in the corner?' Her voice lifted a little.

'No, but I was hoping you didn't notice the droplet,' he grumbled.

'I did. You're good, though. It wasn't jizz.' Her calmness and complete lack of concern unnerved him. 'I think it was just drool. Definitely not jizz.'

_At least something's going my way,_ he sighed to himself. 'Fine, you win. Cut later. Eat now.' He didn't really want to think _where_ she was cutting if it required the removal of her top. 'And put your shirt back on.'

'You think I'm cutting my chest?'

He almost cursed aloud. He still hadn't gotten used to her habit of speaking his thoughts; at least, that was what it seemed she was doing. 'Yes.'

'I'm not. I removed my shirt because I didn't want to get blood on it. The cuts are on my _ribs_, not my—'

'Yes,' he said hastily. Despite his previous experiences—Seto Kaiba was _not_ a virgin by any stretch of the imagination—he still preferred to maintain the image of a suave businessman. A businessman did _not_ talk about breasts. Or think about them…

'You're drooling,' a voice said, and Seto snapped back into reality just in time to see Raven turn around, blood running down her ribs. Her tank top was back on though; something he was grateful for. Things—one thing in particular—was hard enough already.

'I wasn't drooling.' He subtly wiped his mouth and picked up a piece of the pizza. 'Now eat.'

She sighed and reluctantly picked up a piece, taking a cautious bite out of it. 'Why are you doing this?'

'Doing what?'

'Doing… _this._ You know. Being nice to me. Looking after me. Sticking up for me.' She chewed the piece, swallowed it. 'You said you weren't going to be there for me anymore, Kaiba. So why are you still being nice?'

He gave a short laugh, heart hardening. He'd know this was coming. And he knew what he had to do. 'You think this is nice? The only reason I'm doing this is because until you're somewhat sane again the efficiency of this whole operation is compromised.'

It was a lie. A horrible, cruel lie. But it was necessary. 'We need you to be at peak efficiency if we're going to have any chance at defeating these idiots. That means no more cutting, no more starving. That means actually being somewhat healthy and responsible.'

Raven's eyes narrowed a little, but he ploughed on. 'I'm not being nice to you because I want to, girl. Far from it. In fact, there's nothing I'd like more than to have let you die last night. But as much as it pains me to say it, we need you for this.' Wiping his mouth, he stood and turned his back. 'So eat up and clean those cuts of yours. I expect you back out there in a few hours. We have plans to draw.'

He left before his voice cracked. It was necessary, it was needed, it was what _had_ to happen. She wasn't good for him. She'd only drag him down. She wasn't Ravana; she was _Raven._ _Raven. Raven._

The urge to slam his fist into the wall in frustration was getting harder to resist.

_Idiot._ He chastised himself. He was a businessman; he made ruthless decisions every day. He cut people from his life all the time. It was nothing new.

So why couldn't he get rid of his feelings for her?

_She's not Ravana. Not Ravana. Not yours. Come on, you idiot. She's nowhere near good enough for you. Can you imagine trying to introduce her to your business partners?_ The image of Raven in a slinky dress and high heels made him chuckle, then groan as his pants tightened. Again. _Can't you keep your mind off her for two seconds?_

From the room behind him he could have sworn he heard an Egyptian curse. Then, quite suddenly, he heard another curse from in front of him too, and he had to stop himself from yelping in surprise. Quietly he leant into the wall's shadow and peered around the corner.

There, leaning against the wall, stood Yugi.

Seto watched him carefully. Perhaps this would distract him.

*

_*Earlier, in the kitchen*_

Yugi glanced after Seto's retreating back before looking at his friends. 'What'd he mean by explain things to me?'

'Let's sit down,' Ryou said quietly. 'It'll take a little while.'

They did as he suggested, and Tea began explaining. 'What Kaiba meant was to explain to you what happened when Yami lost your soul. After Yami woke up, Raven appeared.'

'She just appeared out of nowhere?' he asked dubiously.

'Well, not _nowhere_. She came in on her bike,' Joey said.

'And swore her head off,' Tristan added, somewhat unnecessarily. Raven's foul mouth was a given by now.

'She picked Yami up by his shirt and asked him what happened.'

'But she called him Yugi first, Tea,' Ryou said. 'She picked him up by his collar and said, "Yugi, what the 'f' happened".'

'Why do you bother replacing the fuck with an 'f'?' Mai asked.

'Because I have manners.'

'She called him Yugi?' Yugi asked, determinedly ignoring the both of them.

'Yeah. Then she saw he was Yami and starting going "no".' Tea stretched her shoulders.

'Then she went ballistic,' Joey said eagerly. 'She went absolutely bananas! Yelled at Yami for losing your soul, dropped him and kicked holes in the rocks—swearing all the while, of course—and then when Yami tried to apologise for making her give up one of her extra souls she—'

'Did nothing,' Ryou butted in, staring at him furiously.

'She didn't do _nothing_, Ry, she said she wasn't annoyed at having to give up a soul, she was annoyed with Yami because—'

'She _wasn't_ annoyed with Yami,' Ryou continued. A slight thud ran through the ground; Joey winced and Ryou's leg twitched.

'Oh, yeah, she wasn't,' Joey said.

'You're a terrible liar, Joey,' Yugi sighed. 'It's alright, Ryou. Why was Raven mad at Yami?'

Ryou sighed. 'She was mad at him for losing your soul.'

At this, Yugi burst into laughter. 'No way. Come on, just this morning she wanted nothing to do with me. Just an hour or two ago she was quite happy to punch me out. You're trying to make me believe that she was ready to kill because Yami lost my soul?'

'Exactly, hon,' Mai said. 'She said, and I quote: "I'm pissed that you lost my brother".'

Yugi's expression went from amused to dumbfounded. 'Now you're just screwing with me.'

'She's not,' Tea admitted. 'Yami even asked her if she wanted to take it back, after what the two of you agreed to this morning, and she said she didn't care what she agreed to, you were her brother no matter what you thought of her.'

'I'm _not_ her brother,' Yugi growled. It sounded less certain that it had earlier. 'What then?'

'She reminded Yami of what he'd promised her back in Domino,' Joey said. 'She reminded him how he'd promised her he'd always look after you, and then she picked him up again and yelled at him—right in his face, she yelled at him—saying that what you did wasn't looking after him.'

'I thought his eardrums would have burst from it,' Ryou said.

'Yami apologised again, and she accepted.' Tristan finished.

Joey chuckled. 'After telling him if he ever lost you again she'd make him wish he was dead a thousand times over before she killed him. And threatened us with the same if we told you what she'd said.'

'Which is why we tried to lie,' Ryou finished.

Yugi glanced down at his feet, suddenly ashamed. _She really said those things, Yami?_

_She did, aibou,_ Yami replied. _I have never seen anyone as angry as she was. It was the first time in a long time I have ever feared for my life._

He looked back up to his friends. 'I'll be back in a little while. I just need some time to think, okay?'

'Sure,' Tea nodded.

With a quick wave goodbye he scuttled off, thinking hard. Raven wasn't his sister; she was barely even human. She was a murderer, a thief, a wanted criminal. _She's not Ravana._

_Ravana's still under there, somewhere, _Yami said, interrupting his reverie. _I could feel it._

_You could?_

_Yes, Yugi. When she was yelling at me for losing your soul the fear in her eyes—_

_Fear? In Raven's eyes?_ Yugi almost laughed. _You're going blind, Yami._

_It wasn't fear as in being afraid of something,_ Yami said. _It was fear of something happening to _you_. She was afraid of what had happened to you._

_But she doesn't care about me. She doesn't care about anyone!_

_So why did she come out there in the first place?_ He asked quietly. _Why did she return your soul without ever being asked to? Why did she save Joey from Mai when she could have easily just let them both be taken by the Orichalcos?_

_Because she had to._

_She didn't have to._

Yugi groaned, swore aloud, and leaned against the wall. _This isn't right, Yami. She's not my sister. Ravana was—_

_Raven being who she wanted to be,_ Yami said. _At the moment, she can't be who she wants to be. She won't let herself. When she let herself in the past, bad things happened to her, aibou. So now she won't let herself be who she wants to be for fear of more bad things. Ravana's still in there. It's just that things changed for her._

_So why is she so different then?_ Yugi snapped.

_Because nothing changed for us._

Yugi fell into silence. He sighed. _Just how do you know all this?_

_I could feel it through the shadows. All the shadows are connected, Yugi, remember? When I'm in the Puzzle I can feel many strong emotions coming from the darkness around it. All from her._

_Really?_ Curiousity peaked, Yugi paused, then asked, _Can you show me?_

_Of course,_ Yami said, and in a blink, Yugi's mind was pulled into the Puzzle.

'It's been a while since I've been here with you,' he said quietly.

'We haven't had much chance,' the Pharaoh agreed. 'Now come.'

Silently he followed his darker half down the corridors of the Puzzle until they reached a door engraved with a large cross.

'Doesn't that mean we shouldn't enter?' Yugi asked.

'It means that beyond that door lies an entrance to the Shadow Realm,' Yami said. 'Do not be afraid; I can control it now.'

Yugi still clutched at his hand tightly. 'I trust you.'

Taking a deep breath, the twosome stepped through the doorway, finding themselves in an area filled with nothing but shadows and howls.

'What is this?'

'This is the true Shadow Realm,' Yami replied. 'It is nothing but shadows. Hush, now. We don't want to alert her.'

'Alert who?'

'Raven.'

Before Yugi could ask how, Yami put a finger to his lips. _Look over there._

Silently, he did as he was told, and his eyes widened. Before him stood a fiery red crystal shard, at least two metres tall. _What is that?_ But Yami didn't reply. Suddenly the crystal erupted into flames, its centre turning black. A soul-tearing howl rippled from it, sending the shadows scattering back.

_It's Raven's feelings,_ Yami answered. _It's how she feels inside._

_How can we see it?_

_Because of the Sword. If she were to take the time to look around when she comes here, she would see our feelings too. Everyone with access to the Shadow Realm does. Most just know how to keep them well-hidden._

_So how'd you find hers? _Before Yami could answer, another howl ripped through the area and he pulled Yugi into a shadow. _What— _

_She's here._

_What?_

'_FUCKING HELL!_' a voice screamed, and the area was blasted with heat.

_She's angry, I think,_ Yami said.

Yugi peered carefully around the edge of the shadow. Before him stood Raven, hair flowing around her as if in a hurricane and fists balled into tight blocks. Flames seemed to shoot out from her mouth, her eyes; as he watched, she screamed again and a ball of fire blasted against the shadows.

_She can breathe fire!_

_She _does_ have Shadow powers, young one,_ Yami gently reminded him. _She can do many things. Sometimes she comes in breathing fire, sometimes she freezes things in ice. Sometimes she picks things up and throws them with her mind, or her fists._

Yugi shook her head. _She comes here often?_

_Very._

_Why?_

Yami nodded in Raven's direction, and Yugi glanced over at her. The heat had dropped; it was now nearly freezing, but Yami was keeping them both warm with his own magic.

Raven was now slumped against the crystal, surrounded by pools of water that were slowly turning to ice. Yugi started as she howled again. This time, though, the howl ended in a sob. She was _crying_. The whole area contracted, turning deep purple and black with flashes of red.

_Pain,_ Yugi realised. _She's in pain. Why?_

'I'm sorry,' she sobbed. 'I'm so sorry, my brother.'

_Because of us, _Yami whispered.

'I wish I could be Ravana for you, for me,' she rasped. 'I want to be her. I want to be Ravana. But she can't take it… she's not strong enough.'

_Which is why we have Raven._ Yugi wanted nothing more to take her in his arms, but at the same time wanted nothing to do with her ever again. _Angry one minute, crying the next; what am I meant to do with her?_

_Accept her as your sister._ Yami put a hand on his shoulder. _She's done wrong, Yugi. She's done more wrong than most. But she really does love you, in her own way._

_She's not the same, Yami. She's not my sister!_

_Yugi,_ he groaned, _like it or not, Raven's your sister. She's who your sister truly is. Can't you forgive her for what she did?_

_It's not forgiving that's hard. It's forgetting._ He glanced over at Raven, who was now bathed in flames and smashing the shadows. _I can't look at her without remembering Ravana, and I can't remember Ravana without remembering how much I hated Raven for killing her._

_You can't see them as the same person, _Yami realised.

Yugi fell into silence, watching Raven sadly. He sighed. _It just doesn't seem possible. Ravana was tough, yeah, but she cared too. She showed her emotions._

_Like I said, aibou, things changed for her. Horrible things happened to her. She's learned to hide her emotions, to hate everything and everyone around her—to hate herself. It's all she knows now. This confuses her, I think. She wants to show her feelings, she truly does. But she doesn't know how to anymore._

_And she's afraid of what will happen if she does,_ Yugi said softly. _Isn't she?_

Yami nodded. _Last time I watched her, the fear and longing almost drove me insane._

Yugi half-smiled. _You'd never know it from looking at her._

_She's good at hiding things._

He sighed. _I think I need to talk to her. Thanks, Yami._

The spirit smiled serenely, and Yugi guessed that he'd known this would happen. _You are welcome, aibou._

* * *

The question is, will he get to? Raven might not like the idea of being spied on, methinks... tho I do admit it would be *awesome* to be able to breathe fire.

Hope you enjoyed.... reviews are loved. Hopefully ch15 up shortly!


	15. Chapter Fifteen

Whew. Sorry about the lag in updates; school got out of hand! Also sorry if this chapter's kind of slow... hit a block... //shrugs

Should be back to normal next chapter ^_^

Disclaimer: come on now, seriously. It's a fanfic for a reason.

* * *

'I refuse.'

'It'll be safer.'

'_No_.'

'Oh, come on, it's not that big a—'

'I will _not!_'

Yugi groaned.

An hour after their discussion, Raven had come out of her room to join them in planning their next move. They'd attempted to get her to be their chauffer—while Kaiba, Joey and Tristan _could_ drive, there was no arguing that Raven would be a better driver, especially during run-ins with the Doma crew—but she'd flat-out refused.

'_Why_ not?'

'Because I'm not your nanny. Get moneybags to drive. Or the mutt. I'm not driving.'

'But you have the most experience!'

'I also have a perfectly-functioning bike of my own, and I'm not going to be seen dead in a car with you lot.' She flicked her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. 'Next topic.'

Yugi sighed and slumped down as Seto, smirking a little, spoke up. 'The next problem we have is our next place of investigation. Now that the warehouse is destroyed, we have no signal to track and no leads.'

Raven chuckled. 'You underestimate me, Seto. The warehouse had a few… _interesting_ things in it. Explosives—'

'No joking,' Joey muttered.

'—files, pictures, Orichalcos junk and a computer tower,' Raven continued.

'But you brought nothing back.' He crossed his arms. _This is what I get for giving her free rein._

'Again, Seto, you underestimate me.' She reached into her bra, sending all the boys into a deep blush and making both the girls huff, pulling out a small USB-key. 'All the data I could pull from the tower is on there. Photos of important files are too. Same goes for pictures.'

'Like you could pull anything from a computer except the wiring,' Tea huffed.

Raven fixed her with an icy glare. 'For your information, I am _perfectly_ capable when it comes to computers. How the hell do you think I stayed off the radar for so long?'

He could almost have smiled; _something_ had carried over from her time as Ravana. Ravana had been a computer genius.

He opened up his laptop and booted it. 'I take it you've been through it already.'

'Of course. Lucky for us, Doma's a business, and they actually come up as legit. Records, transactions, everything. Their HQ's over in Florida. Oh, and you might be interested to know that Doma's been buying a _lot_ of your stock recently—at the request of Alister.'

'What?'

'Apparently he blames Kaiba Corp for the deaths of his family, or something like that,' she said carelessly. 'There's a whole log of emails and messages between him and Dartz. Unfortunately for you, Dartz listened to him. They're trying to take over your company.'

He cursed. People trying to take over his company wasn't something out of the ordinary, but this time, it could end very badly for him. 'Bastards… at least it gives us a location. That's good.'

'Not quite,' she said. 'The Florida HQ isn't their centre of operations, it's only the centre of _Doma's_ operations. The Orichalcos thing is somewhere else entirely.' She looked over his shoulder and pointed to a folder on the screen. 'There's pictures in there. Open it.'

He did as ordered, and leant back, blinking. 'What the fuck is this?'

'It's their true centre.'

'I know that. What is _that?_'

'Don't ask me. They're stills taken from video footage, but that's all I got out of them.'

The companions crowded around the laptop. On screen was a photograph of a large, Grecian-style temple with rapier-straight spires. More images followed. A wall of stone rectangles, each with its own image carved on it, and a number of blank ones; a chamber with chains set into the wall; another room, circular this time—like the one in the warehouse—with carvings stretching around its walls.

'What _is_ that place?' Mai whispered.

'You were with them. Wouldn't you know?' Tristan asked.

'If she did, she wouldn't remember.'

'And just how do you know that, Raven?' Tea said.

'Because when I freed her from the Orichalcos' control, all the memories she'd gained under its influence were wiped along with it,' Raven explained, in a tone one would take with a five-year-old child. 'She won't remember anything she did or anywhere she went while she was with Doma.'

'Another good example of acting without thinking,' Seto grumbled. At this rate, everything useful they'd find would be rendered useless in two seconds flat.

'It was either wipe them or let both her and the mutt get taken by it,' Raven replied. 'In any case, by the time we'd have defeated Dartz, she would have had those memories wiped anyway. Or she'd be dead.'

'You don't mean that.'

'Speak for yourself. When I catch up with Valon, he's going to—'

'Enough,' Ryou hastily interjected. 'Since we don't know where this place is, why don't we head over to the Florida place, see if we can't find some new leads?'

'Sounds good,' Yugi agreed. 'Will we be driving again?'

'No,' he said. 'We'll be flying this time.'

'Only if I can bring my bike.'

He sighed; he'd guessed as much. 'Alright, you can bring that thing. We'll have to drive to the nearest airstrip though.' Noticing Raven was about to speak up, he hastily added, 'I'll do the driving. If you're concerned about anyone finding out your real background—'

Suddenly an alarm blared from his laptop and he cursed, swinging around to it. Then his eyes widened. _Already?_

'What is it?' Joey asked.

'_Seto!_' Mokuba's voice chirped. '_We were starting to get worried about you._'

'There was no reason,' he replied. He'd missed three calls while the laptop was off, all from Mokuba. Said brother was now sitting in his office beside Solomon Moto, face a picture of relieved glee.

'_I take it you guys kicked ass?_'

With a sideways glance at Raven, he shook his head slightly. 'The warehouse is no more, and we've got a new lead.'

'_But…?_' This time it was Solomon's voice that spoke up. '_Something happened. What?_'

'Grandpa?' Yugi asked. 'What are you doing there?'

'_We thought it would be best to check in on you as often as possible,_' he replied. '_Serenity's watching the shop with Duke—_' Joey muttered under his breath—'_So it's just Mokuba and me for the moment. Now tell us what happened._'

Seto looked up at Yugi, who in turn glanced over at Raven. She frowned.

With a glare to the both of them, Seto turned back to the screen. 'When we got to the warehouse, Valon was revealed to be working for the Orichalcos group. Mai was, too, but Raven managed to wipe the Seal's influence from her. She's back with us now.'

'_That's good,_' Mokuba nodded.

'The Orichalcos group have a business front, called Doma, and we have their HQ location—we'll be travelling there shortly.'

'_That's also good. So what happened that _wasn't_ good?_'

Seto opened his mouth, but Yugi spoke up. 'No, Kaiba. This is something I've got to do.'

'I'll let Moto explain,' he said quietly, turning the laptop to face Yugi. In his mind, he said sorry to the old man; sorry that he'd done the digging, sorry that he'd outed Raven to the group. He kept his face blank, though.

'_We were right, weren't we, Seto?_' Mokuba asked.

'_Right about what?_'

Yugi sighed heavily. 'You remember Raven Astarte?'

The old man visibly stiffened. '_It's her, isn't it? Yugi, I don't care how much she's helped, I'm ordering you to take a knife and—_'

'She's Ravana.'

Seto could have sworn he _heard_ the old man's mind snap. '_What_?'

Raven turned her back.

'She's Ravana,' Yugi repeated, voice dull and heavy. 'Raven is Ravana.'

'_That's impossible._'

'She's got the scars. And she admitted to it. It's her, Grandpa.' His voice cracked. 'I'm sorry.'

'_That's not possible, Yugi. Ravana was—_' he cleared his throat— '_It's not possible._'

'Oh, fuck it,' Raven snapped. 'I didn't want to do this again, but I guess I have to now, don't I?'

Yugi glared at her, but turned the laptop to face her and quickly left the room. Taking his cue, Tea and the rest of the group followed, leaving Seto alone with Raven in the kitchen. He quickly turned to face the wall, only half-listening to the conversation behind him. _Denial, unwilling acceptance, hatred,_ he sighed to himself. From the sounds of it, the elder Moto had just shifted from 'unwilling acceptance' to 'hatred'; Raven's angry screams had changed from English to Egyptian—he'd noticed she tended to slip back into her native tongue when she was particularly furious—but the old man, either through lack of knowledge or better temper control, was still using English.

After a minute of ever-loudening screaming, he quietly slipped into the hallway, leaning against the wall.

Finally he heard a chair crash; either Raven had jumped up too quickly or—more likely—she'd thrown one of the battered objects at the nearest wall. '_Fuck you, old man_!' A sudden, horrifying thought occurred to him: _my laptop._ Would Raven have thrown that too?

He strode back down the hallway, but just as he reached the door to the kitchen something heavy slammed into his stomach. It didn't feel much but the force behind it was enough to knock him off his feet and into the wall behind him; his head cracked against the wall and the breath was driven out of him.

Groaning, he propped himself against the wall, panting heavily. Stars swam in front of his eyes. _What the fuck was that?_

'_Get off me!_' A voice snarled, and his vision cleared just in time to see a black-and-red mess of hair stalk off down the hall. _Raven_. She must've been running out of the kitchen to knock him that hard—no, maybe not. _She's damn strong, and you know it._

He still had a bruise on his ass from where she'd thrown him a few days ago.

Breath slowing returning he looked down at his chest. It felt like there should be a hole where she'd hit him, but there wasn't. Only—

_Teardrops?_

He wiped the glistening droplets from his shirt and glanced up the way Raven had left. _Odd._ Against his wishes, he went back into the kitchen. Thankfully his laptop was still on the table—a chair was the only casualty of Raven's anger. From the speakers a heavy panting could be heard, along with Mokuba's apologies.

'You both still there?'

'_Solomon's_ _gone back to the shop,_' Mokuba replied softly.

'Guessed as much.' He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. 'Could you please arrange for one of my jets to meet us at the nearest airfield tomorrow? One with luggage capacity for a motorbike?'

'_Sure thing, big bro_. _Anything else?_'

He sighed heavily. 'No, that'll do.' With a customary goodbye he shut the lid of his laptop and put it back in his briefcase. For the rest of the night he sat silently at the table, mulling over numerous coffees; not really thinking, but not completely out of it either. He heard the others have dinner, say goodnight, but he remained at the table. Raven hadn't made an appearance for food yet.

He'd already accepted the fact that any relationship he'd have with Raven would end in tears and blood. She probably wouldn't live past twenty. God knew he already had enough to pine over. All he wanted right now was to comfort her, for her to be his, but that wasn't going to happen. It wasn't _ever_ going to happen. So for both their sakes, it was best that the relationship was ended before it could begin. In other words, make her hate him even more than she already did. Hopefully somewhere along the line, he'd end up hating her, too.

He doubted it, though.

'_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH_!'

In a flash he was down the hallway and in her room. 'Raven—'

'_NO—NO—NO—_'

He heard the sheet being thrown aside.

'Kaiba, what the fuck happened?' Joey yelled.

'I don't know! She—'

'_NO!_' she howled, bolting upright. Her eyes were wide and unfocussed, the pupils pinpricks. Tears were beginning to form, and she was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.

'Raven, it's alright,' Ryou shouted, but she paid him no heed. She curled herself into a ball and starting rocking back and forth, screaming and sobbing.

'_No—no—_'

_Another night terror,_ Seto realised. _Shit._ What had he done last time that had made her stop?

Throwing caution to the wind he crawled over to her and put his arms around her shoulders, holding her tightly. A pair of pale hands appeared on her shoulders—Ryou knelt beside him—and began rubbing them. Slowly, the other companions joined them, stroking her hair or offering comforting words; even Yugi joined in, eyes strangely softer than before.

After about half an hour, she'd calmed down enough for her eyes to return to normal, and to stop hyperventilating. Eventually she fell into a deep sleep.

Seto lay her gently back down and tucked her in.

'This can't keep happening,' Yugi said. 'It's not healthy for any of us.'

'We'll talk to her in the morning,' Ryou said.

As the seven made their way back to their beds, Seto took one last look at the sleeping girl. _Hope you're alright._

_

* * *

_

Aaand cue the patheticness. Update should be in a week, fingers crossed.

x~


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